EXP 



EXP 



be proportional to the end. 3. There 

 must be an accurate knowledge of ihe 

 state ml situation of the country. 4. The 

 plan must be well arranged, and the 

 commander perfectly adapted to the par- 

 ticular sort of business. 



EXPERIENCE, a kind of knowledge 

 acquired i>y long use, without any teach- 

 er. Mr. Locke says that men receive all 

 the materials of knowledge from experi- 

 ence and observation. Experience then 

 consists in the ideas of things we have 

 seen or read, which the judgment has re- 

 flected on, to form itself a rule or me- 

 thod. 



EXPERIMENTAL philosophy, that phi- 

 losophy which proceeds on experiments, 

 which deduces the laws of nature, and 

 the properties and powers of bodies, and 

 their actions upon each other, from sen- 

 sible experiments and observations. The 

 business of experimental philosophy is. to 

 inquire into and to investigate the rea- 

 sons and causes of the various appear- 

 ances or phenomena of nature, and to 

 make the truth or probability thereof ob- 

 vious and evident to the senses, by plain, 

 undeniable, and adequate experiments, 

 representing the several parts of the 

 grand machinery and agency of nature. 



In our inquries into nature, we are to 

 be conducted by those rules and maxims 

 which are found to be genuine, and con- 

 sonant to a just "method of physical rea- 

 soning; and these, rules of philosophis- 

 ing are, by the greatest master in science, 

 Sir Isaac Newton, reckoned four, which 

 are as follows : 



1. More causes of natural things are 

 not to be admitted, than are both true, 

 and sufficient to explain the phenomena ; 

 for nature does nothing in vain, but is 

 simple, and delights not in superfluous 

 causes of things. 



2. And, therefore, of natural effects of 

 the same kind, the same causes are to be 

 assigned, as far as it can be done ; as of 

 respiration in man and beasts, of the de- 

 scent of stones in Europe and America, of 

 light in a culinary fire and in the sun, and 

 of the reflection of light in the earth and 

 in the planets. 



3. The qualities of natural bodies which 

 cannot be increased or diminished, and 

 agree to all bodies in which experiments 

 can be made, are to be reckoned as the 

 qualities of all bodies whatsoever : thus, 

 because extension, divisibility, hardness, 

 impenetrability, mobility, the vis iner- 

 tiae, and gravity, are found in all bodies 

 which fall under our cognizance or in- 

 spection, we may justly conclude they 



belong to all bodies whatsoever, and 

 are therefore to be esteemed the original 

 and universal properties of all natural 

 bodies. 



4. In experimental philosophy, propo 

 sitions collected from the phaenomena by 

 induction are to be deemed (notwith- 

 standing contrary hypotheses) either ex- 

 actly or very nearly true, till other pheno- 

 mena occur, by which they may be ren- 

 dered either more accurate, or liable to 

 exception. This ought to be done, lest ar- 

 guments of induction should be destroy- 

 ed by hypothesis. 



These four rules of philosophising are 

 premised b) Sir Isaac Newton to his third 

 book of the "Principia;" and more parti- 

 cularly explained by him in his " Optics," 

 where he exhibits the method of proceed- 

 ing in philosophy, the first part of which 

 is as follows : 



"As in mathematics, so in natural his- 

 tory, the investigation of difficult things, 

 by way of analysis, ought always to pre- 

 cede the method of composition. This 

 analysis consists" in making experiments 

 and observations, and in drawing gene- 

 ral conclusions from them by induction, 

 (i. e. reasoning from the analogy of things 

 by natural consequence) and admitting 

 no objections against the conclusions 

 but what are taken from experiments or 

 certain truths. And although the argu- 

 ing from experiments and observation, by 

 induction, be no demonstration of gene- 

 ral conclusions, yet it is the best way of 

 arguing which the nature of things admits 

 of, and may be looked on as so much the 

 stronger, by how much the induction is 

 more general ; and if no exception occur 

 from phaenomena, the conclusion may be 

 pronounced generally : but if, at any time 

 afterwards, any exception shall occur 

 from experiments, it may then be pro- 

 nounced with such exceptions : by this 

 way of analysis we may proceed from 

 compounds to ingredients, and from mo- 

 tions to the causes producing them ; and, 

 in general from effects to their causes; 

 and from particular causes to more gene- 

 ral ones, till the argument ends in the 

 most general : this is the method of ana- 

 lysis. And that of synthesis, or composi- 

 tion, consists in assuming causes, disco- 

 vered and established as principles, and 

 by them explaining the phenomena pro- 

 ceeding from them, and proving the ex- 

 planations." See ACOUSTICS, AKROSTA- 



T1ON- F-LI CTIUCITY. HYDROSTATICS, MAG- 



NKTISM, MECHANICS, OPTICS, PXECMA- 

 TICS, &c. &c. 



