PHYSICAL KNOWLEDGE. 31 



tion du Systeme du Monde," in which the results of the 

 highest mathematical and astronomical labours of all pre- 

 ceding ages are presented, detached from all details of de- 

 monstration. In this work the structure of the heavens is 

 reduced to the simple solution of a great problem in me- 

 chanics ; and yet, assuredly, it has never been accused of in- 

 completeness, or want of profoundness. The separation of 

 the general from the special not only renders it possible to 

 embrace at one view, with greater clearness, a wider field of 

 knowledge, but it also lends to the treatment of natural 

 science a character of greater elevation and grandeur. By 

 the suppression of details the masses are better seen, and 

 the reasoning faculty is enabled to grasp that which might 

 otherwise escape our limited powers of comprehension. 



The high degree of improvement which the last half cen- 

 tury has witnessed in the study of all the separate branches 

 of natural science, but especially in those of chemistry, gene- 

 ral physics, geology, and descriptive natural history, is emi- 

 nently favourable to the presentation of general results. When 

 first looked at singly and superficially all phsenomena appear 

 unconnected ; as observations multiply and are combined by 

 reflection, and as a deeper insight into natural powers is 

 obtained, more and more points of contact and links of 

 mutual relation are discovered, and it becomes more and 

 more possible to develope general truths with conciseness, 

 without superficiality. In an age of such rapid and bril- 

 liant progress as the present, it is a sure criterion of the 

 number and value of the discoveries to be hoped for in any 

 particular science, if, though studied with great assiduity 

 and sagacity, its facts still appear for the most part uncon- 

 nected, with little mutual relation, or even in some instances 



VOL. I. i 



