THE CONNECTION 



OF 



THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES. 



INTKODUCTION. 



SCIENCE, regarded as the pursuit of truth, must ever afford 

 occupation of consummate interest, and subject of elevated medi- 

 tation. The contemplation of the works of creation elevates the 

 mind to the admiration of whatever is great and noble ; accom- 

 plishing the object of all study, which, in the eloquent language 

 of Sir James Mackintosh, "is to inspire the love of truth, of 

 wisdom, of beauty especially of goodness, the highest beauty 

 and of that supreme and eternal Mind, which contains all truth 

 and wisdom, all beauty and goodness. By the love or delightful 

 contemplation and pursuit of these transcendent aims, for their 

 own sake only, the mind of man is raised from low and perishable 

 objects, and prepared for those high destinies which are appointed 

 for all those who are capable of them." 



Astronomy affords the most extensive example of the connec- 

 tion of the physical sciences. In it are combined the sciences of 

 number and quantity, of rest and motion. In it we perceive the 

 operation of a force which is mixed up with everything that 

 exists in the heavens or on earth ; which pervades every atom, 

 rules the motions of animate and inanimate beings, and is as 

 sensible in the descent of a rain-drop as in the falls of Niagara ; 

 in the weight of the air, as in the periods of the moon. Gravita- 

 tion not only binds satellites to their planet, and planets to the 

 sun, but it connects sun with sun throughout the wide extent of 

 creation, and is the cause of the disturbances, as well as of the 

 order of nature ; since every tremor it excites in any one planet 



B 



