FIRST EDITION. xxi 



justified in calling that a History of the Inductive 

 Sciences, which contains an account of the progress 

 of the physical sciences only. But it would have 

 conveyed a false impression of my purpose, had I 

 described my history in any manner which implied 

 that the sciences which it embraces are partially 

 selected or arbitrarily limited. Those of which the 

 progress is exhibited in the present volumes, appear 

 to me to form a connected and systematic body 

 of knowledge. And if there be branches of know- 

 ledge which regard Morals, or Politics, or the Fine 

 Arts, and which may properly be called Inductive 

 (an opinion which I by no means gainsay) ; still it 

 must be allowed, I think, that the processes of col- 

 lecting general truths from assemblages of special 

 facts, and of ascending from propositions of a limited 

 to those of a larger generality, which the term Induc- 

 tion peculiarly implies, have hitherto been far more 

 clearly exhibited in the physical sciences which form 

 the subject of the present work, than in those hyper- 

 physical sciences to which I have not extended my 

 history. I will further add, that if I should be ena- 

 bled hereafter to lay before the world a view of 

 the Philosophy of Inductive Science in its general 

 bearings, it will be requisite, in order to exhibit, in 

 its due light the state of the philosophy of morals, or 

 art, or any similar subject, to give a view of the steps 

 by which it has reached its present position ; and 

 thus such a work will supply that which some may 

 judge wanting to fill up the outline of this historical 

 undertaking. 



As will easily be supposed, I have borrowed 



