26 MEMOIR OF ALFRED SMEE. [CHAP. IV. 



Science, nor should I have published it if I could have referred to any 

 sufficiently condensed work on these subjects. But having felt the want 

 of a work considering the subjects of the sciences, and showing their 

 relative position, I conceived that my own attempts to forward these 

 inquiries might not be unacceptable to many lovers of scientific knowledge. 

 If I shall hereafter find that my labours have been useful to society, or 

 have induced others to produce a more perfect treatise, I shall feel most 

 amply rewarded.* 



From these words we learn that Alfred Smee was the first 

 who published a condensed yet exhaustive view of the physical 

 sciences. 



Although since this work was written, now thirty-four years 

 ago, great strides, nay, colossal strides, have been made in physical 

 science, yet it must be borne in mind that ' Sources of Physics ' 

 was the forerunner of all the numerous treatises which have since 

 been issued in this branch of knowledge, and it was therefore at 

 the time of its publication a most original work. 



In this work he impresses the reader with the importance of 

 studying physics as a whole, not in divisions. 



For (says he) by the investigation of the phenomena of one science 

 we become more acquainted with its details ; but when we are desirous 

 of contemplating the real nature of the phenomena, and the cause of their 

 production, we must study the effects as a whole, to prevent erroneous 

 conclusions and vain creations of imponderables.! 



The tendency of the present day is to take up one branch of 

 knowledge only nay, to divide one branch of knowledge into 

 various subdivisions, and to investigate only the details of one of 

 these subdivisions, thereby narrowing the mind ; for as the sight 

 of man is injured by viewing objects only through the microscope, 

 so in a similar manner is the mind narrowed by only using it for 

 the investigation of mere matters of detail. 



In another placet m y father advocates for different classes 

 more freely to interchange ideas. 



The tendency of the period (says he) is for society to group 

 together in classes ; even the Royal Society for the Promotion of Natural 

 Knowledge is most exclusive to all but actual followers of natural science. 

 The clergy separate themselves, the doctors congregate together, but a 

 continual intercourse in a right spirit has a tendency to perfect the mind 

 of all ; and whether they work in the upper, lower, or middle departments 

 of their minds, all should accord. 



* See * Sources of Physics,' Preface, p. vii. f Idem, p. 254. 



J See Mind of Man/ p. 106. 



