384 SCIENTIFIC THOCTGHT. 



with less favour, although it was entirely owing to 

 Newton's gravitation formula that it ever obtained its 

 great influence, the labour of Continental men of science 

 being very largely spent in two directions : first, in draw- 

 ing the purely mathematical consequences of Newton's 

 formula in this they have met with increasing success, 

 unparalleled by that in any other domain of science ; 

 and secondly, in extending the principle of Xewton, by 

 experiment and analogy, into other departments. In some 

 of these, very remarkable results have been achieved ; but 

 nevertheless at the end of the century no extension or 

 analogue of the Newtonian gravitation formula has been 

 generally accepted, and it still stands there as almost 

 the only firmly established mathematical relation, ex- 

 pressive of a property of all matter, to which the pro- 

 gress of more than two centuries has added nothing, 

 from which it has taken nothing away. The value, 

 however, of all those partial attempts in another direc- 

 tion has been enormous ; for with the aim of applying, 

 extending, or modifying a rigorous mathematical for- 

 mula, those philosophers have carried out a series of 

 the most exact observations and measurements of physi- 

 cal quantities, very greatly extended our knowledge of 

 natural phenomena and their mutual relations, and 

 founded that general system of physical measurement 

 which is now universally adopted. The names of Gauss 

 and Weber stand out prominently as leaders in this 

 work. I shall have to come back to this point later 

 on, after I have shown that other views of nature 

 besides the astronomical have also led up to it, and 

 placed it in similar prominence. 



