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.SEVERAL of the lectures delivered by Dr. LAIV_.TS ?. : ; the r.^y of 

 New York were reported for " The New York T-.ibt.jK," and were 

 afterward published in pamphlet form. The last edWon of th^s^ lec- 

 tures was introduced by a " Sketch of the Prog ess of Physical Sci- 

 ence," written by Dr. THOMAS THOMSON, of London. The publishers 

 of this complete edition of Dr. LARDNEK'S lectures deem the following 

 extracts from that treatise, respecting the physical -jc : cv-.ces of the anc'ents, 

 an appropriate introduction to these volumes : 



The cradle of the human race was beyond dispute the southern por- 

 tion of Asia a delightful climate, where the original inhabitants of the 

 earth first lived and multiplied. Chaldea and India had attained a high 

 degree of civilization long before the Greeks and Romans had begun to 

 emerge from a state of barbarism ; but we know comparatively little of 

 the attainments in science which these nations had reached. We 

 are equally ignorant of the progress which mathematical and physical ( 

 inquiries had made in China not one of the treatises on mathematics, 

 arithmetic, and astronomy, in the Chinese language, having been trans- 

 lated into any of the languages of modern Europe. But the resem- 

 blance between the Chinese and the ancient Egyptians is so very stri- 

 king, and so complete, that it is difficult to avoid suspecting that they 



