86 Dogma and Empiricism precede Science. 



rain, hail, snow, mist and dew, of thunder and light- 

 ning, the composition of air, water, mineral, and 

 organic substances, and other most numerous and 

 varied phenomena. In the subjects of heat, light, 

 electricity, magnetism, chemistry, vegetable and animal 

 physiology, psychology and morality, and the more 

 concrete subjects depending upon them, such as 

 politics, trade, commerce, government, &c., our ideas 

 have equally advanced, in consequence of scientific 

 research ; and to fully describe the mental progress 

 resulting from discovery in nearly all branches of 

 human knowledge would require a series of books to 

 be written on the History of all the Sciences. 



Other causes also, which I need hardly mention, 

 besides scientific discovery, have of course contributed 

 to the mental progress of mankind. We arrive at 

 true ideas, not only by the more certain and syste- 

 matic process employed in scientific research, but 

 7 largely also by the uncertain method of trusting to 

 ; instinct and habit, by adopting dogmatic opinions, 

 and by the semi-scientific plan of following empirical 

 rules. 



Dogma and empiricism, in nearly all subjects, has 

 rendered immense service to mankind. Contempora- 

 neously with the progress produced by new knowledge, 

 the mental condition of man has been maintained and 

 prevented from receding, by the combined influence 

 of hereditary mental proclivity, acquired habit, pro- 

 mulgation of dogmatic opinions and empirical rules, 

 and by previously known verified truth. Religious 



