WEIGHT AND MAGNITUDE. 99 



and if we could get the better of them, we should 

 have a will to the work, and where there is a will, 

 it is true, and common even to a proverb, that 

 there is a way. But as even, where they exist, 

 and are acted upon in all their inveteracy, we are 

 not very willing to confess them, it may, perhaps, 

 be as well to suppose that we have got the better 

 of them, and are disposed not only to push vigor- 

 ously onward in the road of observation, but to be 

 informed of everything that can speed our advance- 

 ment, or prevent our turning aside from it. 



Those who would be profitable observers of na- 

 ture, must have very clear and correct notions on 

 the subjects of weight and magnitude, which are 

 the general qualities of matter in all its varied 

 forms, whether living or dead : they are the stand- 

 ards by which all things are determined, and the 

 only means by which one thing can be accurately 

 compared with another : and when we come to any 

 thing, be it what it may, that we cannot determine 

 either by weight or by measure, our knowledge of 

 that thing is always vague and imperfect. 



Weight is nothing more than the tendency 

 which all portions of matter have towards each 

 other ; not in the formation of crystals of a cer- 

 tain shape, as was mentioned in the case of com- 

 mon salt, or in the formation of drops of water, 

 masses of stone, plants, animals, or any thing else 

 that has a specific or individual form and character ; 

 but a more general property, common to all matter, 

 and, in fact, the only test by which matter is 

 known, or its real quantity ascertained. In ma- 

 terial bodies, near the earth's surface, where all 

 the productions of nature that we can more imme- 

 diately observe are, weight means the same thing 

 K 2 



