12 Revolutions and Improvements, 8(v. 



dividually threw on the departments of science 

 which they undertook to investigate, each com- 

 menced, or rendered fashionable, a mode of philo^ 

 sophizing in his particular sphere, equally new, 

 grand, and interesting; and they may be said to 

 have laid the foundation of all the magnificent 

 structures which have been since erected. 



To Newton no successor has hitherto appeared. 

 The chair which he left has never since been filled. 

 It is probable no effort of the human mind, to rear 

 a rational and permanent system of philosophy, was 

 ever attended with such a degree of success as that 

 which he made. Certainly no other system ever at- 

 tained such extensive and undisputed empire in sci- 

 ence. It is founded on principles so precise, con« 

 nected and firm ; it explains, with such luminous 

 clearness, most of the phenomena of the heavens 

 which had been observed before his time, as well 

 as of those which the persevering industry, and 

 the more perfect instruments of later astronomers 

 have made known; and instead of being under- 

 mined or discredited, has been so remarkably 

 illustrated and confirmed by the labours of subse- 

 quent inquirers, that any thing like efficient op- 

 position seems to have been long since given up ; 

 and the admiring world appears no longer to he- 

 sitate in placing the discoveries of this wonderful 

 genius among the most important that w^ere ever 

 made by man, and among the very few which may 

 justly lay claim to immortahty. 



And if the intellectual system of Locke have 

 gained a sway, less general and potent, than the 

 physical doctrines of his great contemporary; still, 

 perhaps, his genius ought to be considered as but 

 little inferior. What though a few respectable 

 metaphysicians, since his day, have pointed out 

 some errors in his principles, and suggested some 

 valuable improvements in his philosophy of mind. ^ 



