Vll 



the author himself, and acknowledging what the present time 

 with its accumulating mass of knowledge presses upon us more 

 and more the necessity of work, wherein abstract science and ex- 

 perience, theory and facts shall advance together, the Ideal in part 

 receiving and reflecting back wtih increased lustre the light which 

 it has derived from the Real or outward semblance of things. 



Meanwhile, it is with no small amount of diffidence and hesitation 

 that the present Translation will quit my hands. Hemmed in by a 

 rigid dialectic terminology upon all sides, I have had difficulties of 

 no ordinary kind to contend with in adapting a language, composed 

 of such varied elements as our own, to meet the requisites of general 

 clearness and conciseness that form so prominent a feature of the 

 German work. If errors and obscurities exist, the blame, it will 

 be observed, attaches to myself, not to the distinguished author. 

 Ill-heath has Conflicted much with the calmness and repose of 

 mind so indispensable to an undertaking, at once novel in kind 

 and character to the English reader ; or otherwise, these (my last 

 labours unto any extent as a Translator) might have been rendered 

 more worthy of the Ray Society and the objects it has in view. 



To those who have kindly afforded me assistance in the progress 

 of the work, and to the latter body for undertaking it, I here return 

 many grateful thanks. The Author himself in a letter to the Trans- 

 lator, dated Jan. 12, 1847, acknowledges the acceptance of his work 

 by the Society in the following words: "The intelligence of my 

 Physiophilosophy having been deemed worthy of translation by so 

 goodly and enlightened a Society, cannot be otherwise unto me than 

 a source of delight."* 



ALFRED TULK. 



* " Die Nachricht dass meine Naturphilosophie von einer sociferigen und 

 erleuchteten Gesellschaft der Uebersetzung fur wiirdig erachtet worden 1st, 

 konnte nicht anders als mir Freude gewahren." 



