PRELUDE. 29 



the universal element, resulted from the manifest 

 importance of moisture in the support of animal 

 and vegetable life 3 . But such precarious analyses 

 of these obscure and loose dogmas of early antiquity 

 are of small consequence to our object. 



In more limited and more definite examples of 

 inquiry concerning the causes of natural appear- 

 ances, and in the attempts made to satisfy men's 

 curiosity in such cases, we appear to discern a more 

 genuine prelude to the true spirit of physical in- 

 quiry. One of the most remarkable instances of 

 this kind is to be found in the speculations which 

 Herodotus records, relative to the cause of the floods 

 of the Nile. " Concerning the nature of this river," 

 says the father of history 4 , " I was not able to learn 

 anything, either from the priests or from any one 

 besides, though I questioned them very pressingly. 

 For the Nile is flooded for a hundred days, be- 

 ginning with the summer solstice; and after this 

 time it diminishes, and is, during the whole winter, 

 very small. And on this head I was not able to 

 obtain anything satisfactory from any one of the 

 Egyptians, when I asked what is the power by 

 which the Nile is in its nature the reverse of other 

 rivers." 



We may see, I think, in the historian's account, 



that the Grecian mind felt a craving to discover the 



reasons of things which other nations did not feel. 



The Egyptians, it appears, had no theory, and felt 



3 Metaph. i. 3. 4 Herod, n. 19. 



