METEORIC STONES AND SHOOTING STARS. 



429 



METEORIC STONES & SHOOTING STARS. 



WHEN we reflect upon the length of time which has elapsed since just 

 methods of investigating nature were first formally taught by BACON*, \ve can 

 not fail to be struck with surprise at witnessing the frequency with which chose 

 inestimable precepts are neglected and overlooked. There appears to be a dis- 

 position inherent in the mind springing probably from that arrogance and vanity, 

 which are invariably the offspring of ignorance that induces a disposition, in 

 every case, precipitately to rush to the formation of theories and the assump- 

 tion of causes, omitting, or postponing, the far more important though less ambi- 

 tious duty of analyzing phenomena. It is true that these observations are less 

 applicable to that order of minds which have been disciplined in the severe 

 schools of the old and long-established universities, where the works of BACON, 

 and the mathematical classics of NEWTON and LAPLACE, are studied with 

 a zeal and perseverance which do not fail to infuse their spirit into the minds 

 of their aspiring successors. But in the much larger class of half-disciplined 

 or self-taught aspirants to scientific rank, the disposition we refer to frequently 

 exists, and to a proportionate extent retards their progress, and impairs the 

 value of their labors. 



The public teacher should, therefore, omit no proper opportunity of incul- 

 cating the true spirit of the inductive philosophy, which, in our day, has afforded 

 so rich a harvest of discovery. I shall avail myself of the opportunity which 

 the consideration of aerolites offers, to afford you an example of the rigorous 

 observance of the canons of Bacon's philosophy in the investigation of nature. 



Every one possessed of the smallest amount of the current information of 

 the day, imagines that he knows what meteoric stones are. He knows that 

 they fall from the air, and that they are accompanied by fire and noise. With 

 this amount of information he unhesitatingly sets about to conjecture their origin, 

 and to get up a theory to explain them. As might be expected, the theory pro- 

 duced under such circumstances is always crude and absurd, and falls to pieces 

 upon the slightest comparison with the phenomena. 



