TRANSITION TO CHEMICAL SCIENCE. 115 



held men for centuries by a kind of fascination ; 

 and innumerable and endless are the varied labours* 

 the failures and successes, the speculations and 

 conclusions, the strange pretences and fantastical 

 dreams, of those who have pursued it. To exhibit 

 all these, or give any account of them, would be 

 impossible; and for our design, it would not be 

 pertinent. To extract from the mass that which 

 is to our purpose, is difficult ; but the attempt must 

 be made. We must endeavour to analyze the his- 

 tory of Chemistry, so far as it has tended towards 

 the establishment of general principles. We shall 

 thus obtain a sight of generalizations of a new kind, 

 and shall prepare ourselves for others of a higher 

 order. 



