viii PREFACE TO THE 



it. A series of controversial Notes would have been 

 of little value to the reader ; and I trust my critics 

 will be content without further acknowledgment of 

 the assistance which I have derived from them. 

 Those who wrote kindly will, I am sure, willingly 

 bestow upon me this additional kindness; and if 

 any have criticized me in another temper, I hope 

 they will not be sorry to see that I have no wish to 

 perpetuate our hostilities. 



But it is only justice to the work to say that 

 the errours which required correction were neither 

 numerous (considering its extent,) nor fundamental. 

 And there is one circumstance which gives me a 

 hope that this essay may have some permanent 

 value. The attempt to throw the histories of all the 

 Sciences into Inductive Epochs, each Epoch having 

 its Prelude and its Sequel, and thus to combine the 

 persons and the events which fill these histories into 

 intelligible groups, was, so far as I know. new. To 

 these Epochs, as they are selected and presented in 

 this work, I have seen no objection made; and it 

 would seem, therefore, to be generally allowed that 

 the Epochs here marked out, are the cardinal points 

 of scientific history. Nor have I seen any complaint 

 (with one exception, of slight importance, but fully 

 noticed in this edition,) that the principal figures 



