THE 



GALLERY 



OF 



.NATURE AND ART. 



PART II. 



ART. 



BOOK I. 

 CHEMISTRY. 



CHAPTER I. 



ON THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF CHEMISTRY. 



1 HE beginnings of every art, which tended either to supply the 

 necessities, or to alleviate the more pressing inconveniencies of 

 human life, were probably coeval with the first establishment of 

 civil societies, and preceded, by many ages, the inventions of let. 

 ters, of hieroglyphics, and of every other mode of transmitting to 

 posterity the memory of past transactions. In vain shall we in. 

 quire who invented the first plough, baked the first bread, shaped 

 the first pot, wove the first garment, or hollowed out the first canoe. 

 Whether men were originally left, as they are at present, to pick 

 up casual information concerning the properties of bodies, and to 

 investigate by the strength of natural genius the various relations 

 of the objects surrounding them ; or were, in the very infancy of 

 the world, supernaturally assisted in the discovery of matters essen- 

 tial, as it should seem, to their existence and well being, raustev0r 

 remain unknown to ui. 

 VOL. vi. B 



