. INTRODUCTION. 5 



the land of promise, as well as the wilderness 

 through which we have passed. The examination 

 of the steps by which our ancestors acquired our 

 intellectual estate, may make us acquainted with 

 our expectations as well as our possessions ; may 

 not only remind us of what we have, but may teach 

 us how to improve and increase our store. It will 

 be universally expected that a History of Inductive 

 Science should point out to us a philosophical dis- 

 tribution of the existing body of knowledge, and 

 afford us some indication of the most promising 

 mode of directing our future efforts to add to its 

 extent and completeness. 



To deduce such lessons from the past history of 

 human knowledge, was the intention which origin- 

 ally gave rise to the present work. Nor is this 

 portion of the design in any measure abandoned ; 

 but its execution, if it take place, must be attempted 

 in a separate and future treatise, On the Philosophy 

 of the Inductive Sciences. An essay of this kind 

 may, I trust, from the progress already made in it, 

 be laid before the public at no long interval after 

 the present history. 



Though, therefore, many of the principles and 

 maxims of such a work will disclose themselves 

 with more or less of distinctness in the course of 

 the history on which we are about to enter, the 

 systematic and complete exposition of such prin- 

 ciples must be reserved for this other treatise. My 

 attempts and reflections have led me to the opinion 



