288 Recapitulation. 



hands of man, has been perverted and abused. 

 It has been carried to the extreme of licentious- 

 ness. In too many instances the love of iiovelty, 

 and the impatience of all restraint founded on 

 prescription or antiquity, have triumphed over 

 truth and wisdom j and, in the midst of zeal for 

 demolishing old errours, the most sacred princi- 

 ples of virtue and happiness have been rejected 

 or forgotten. 



2. The last century may be emphatically called 

 the AGE OF PHYSICAL SCIENCE. It was not till 

 the seventeenth century that the physical sciences 

 began to assume a conspicuous place among the. 

 objects of study. Before that period, the learned 

 languages, ancient history, and the metaphysical 

 jargon of the schoolmen, had chiefly engrossed 

 the attention of literary and scientific men. From 

 the time of Bacon and Kepler a taste for natural 

 philosophy began to extend itself This taste 

 was cherished and improved by the scientific as- 

 sociations which began to be formed in different 

 parts of Europe about the middle of the seven- 

 teenth century : but in the eighteenth it became 

 far more predominant than at any former period,, 

 and may be said to form a prominent feature of 

 the age. 



It has been seen, that several branches of Me- 

 chanical Philcsophy, wholly new, were introduced 

 into the popular systems in the course of this pe- 

 riod ; and that in almost all the branches formerly 

 studied, there were made immense discoveries 

 and improvements. Chemistry has been so much 

 improved and extended, both in its principles 

 and application, that it may be pronounced a 



