4 HISTORY OF INDUCTIVE SCIENCES. 



Such a task, if fitly executed, must have a well- 

 founded interest for all those who look at the 

 existing condition of human knowledge with com- 

 placency and admiration. The present generation 

 finds itself the heir of a vast patrimony of science ; 

 and it must needs concern us to know the steps by 

 which these possessions were acquired, and the 

 documents by which they are secured to us and our 

 heirs for ever. Our species, from the time of its 

 creation, has been travelling onwards in pursuit of 

 truth ; and now that we have reached a lofty and 

 commanding position, with the broad light of day 

 around us, it must be grateful to look back on the 

 line of our past progress ; to review the journey, 

 begun in early twilight amid primeval wilds ; for a 

 long time continued with slow advance and obscure 

 prospects ; and gradually and in later days followed 

 along more open and lightsome paths, in a wide 

 and fertile region. The historian of science, from 

 early periods to the present times, may hope for 

 favour on the score of the mere subject of his nar- 

 rative, and in virtue of the curiosity which the men 

 of the present day may naturally feel respecting the 

 events and persons of his story. 



But such a survey may possess also an interest 

 of another kind ; it may be instructive as well as 

 agreeable ; it may bring before the reader the pre- 

 sent form and extent, the future hopes and pro- 

 spects of science, as well as its past progress. The 

 eminence on which we stand may enable us to see 



