20 INTRODUCTION. 



a regular course, and were directed by them in their 

 journeys over the plains of the desert. Such was the 

 origin of the mathematical and physical sciences. 



" When the genius of man had discovered that 

 it could combat Nature by her own means, it no 

 longer rested ; it watched her incessantly, and 

 continually wrested from her new conquests, each 

 marked by some improvement in his condition. 

 Then succeeded, without interruption, meditating 

 minds, which, being the faithful depositaries of 

 acquired knowledge, and continually occupied with 

 connecting and giving a vivifying unity to its parts, 

 have led us, in less than four thousand years, from 

 the first attempts of those pastoral observers to 

 the profound calculations of Newton and Laplace, 

 and to the learned classifications of Linnseus and 

 Jussieu. This precious inheritance, always aug- 

 menting, borne from Chaldea to Egypt, from Egypt 

 to Greece, hidden during periods of misfortune and 

 darkness, recovered in a happier age, unequally dis- 

 persed among the nations of Europe, has been every 

 where followed by riches and power; the nations 

 which have welcomed it have become the mistresses 

 of the world, while those which have neglected it 

 have fallen into feebleness and obscurity." 



Had man, in his original state, been cast feeble 

 and naked on the surface of the globe, he could not 

 have survived a single week, with all the elements 

 of nature combined against him. His first experi- 

 ment on the tiger or the asp, even his first morsel 

 of food, might have been fatal to him. He must 

 have been formed perfect in knowledge ; or, being 

 formed in ignorance and feebleness, he must have 

 been protected by a power capable of controlling 



