The Idolatry of Science 



conic sections, and all the rest of the higher 

 mathematics are fields of knowledge that can 

 be acquired with dreary labour by any one 

 who persistently applies his mind to them. 



But the only services to which they can be 

 put in life are astronomy, and all that 

 astronomy includes; the prediction of 

 eclipses, the correcting of the calendar, the 

 tabulating of the tides : and the calculations 

 necessary for the building of bridges, the 

 perforation of tunnels, the construction of all 

 manner of mechanical engines and the like. 

 The rules and laws in themselves never vary, 

 and, when once ascertained, afford no further 

 illumination to the mind. 



No doubt Newton made a valuable dis- 

 covery when he ascertained that all particles of 

 matter tend to approach all other particles of 

 matter with a force that varies inversely 

 as the square of their distance apart. But 

 the very fact that the law is invariable and 

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