CURIOSITIES OF SCIENCE. 



Entrotiuctorg. 



SCIENCE OF THE ANCIENT WORLD. 



IN every province of human knowledge where we now possess 

 a careful and coherent interpretation of nature, men began by 

 attempting in bold flights to leap from obvious facts to the 

 highest point of generality to some wide and simple principle 

 which after-ages had to reject. Thus, from the facts that all 

 bodies are hot or cold, moist or dry, they leapt at once to the 

 doctrine that the world is constituted of four elements earth, 

 air, fire, water ; from the fact that the heavenly bodies circle 

 the sky in courses which occur again and again, they at once 

 asserted that they move in exact circles, with an exactly uni- 

 form motion ; from the fact that heavy bodies fall through the 

 air somewhat faster than light ones, it was assumed that all 

 bodies fall quickly or slowly exactly in proportion to their 

 weight ; from the fact that the magnet attracts iron, and that 

 this force of attraction is capable of increase, it was inferred 

 that a perfect magnet would have an irresistible force of at- 

 traction, and that the magnetic pole of the earth would draw 

 the nails out of a ship's bottom which came near it ; from the 

 fact that some of the finest quartz crystals are found among 

 the snows of the Alps, it was inferred that the crystallisation 

 of gems is the result of intense and long-continued cold : and 

 so on in innumerable instances. Such anticipations as these 

 constituted the basis of almost all the science of the ancient 

 world ; for such principles being so assumed, consequences were 

 drawn from them with great ingenuity, and systems of such 

 deductions stood in the place of science. Edinburgh Review, 

 No. 216. 



SCIENCE AT OXFORD AND CAMBRIDGE. 



The earliest science of a decidedly English school is due, 

 for the most part, to the University of Oxford, and specially 

 to Merton College, a foundation of which Wood remarks, that 



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