352 Olmsted's Introdvdion to JVatural PTiilosophy. 



tion pursued in Yale College, and in most of the colleges of our 

 country, severally and conjointly contribute to this main purpose. 

 Geometry and Mechanics, indeed, unite, in a remarkable degree, the 

 three objects specified ; for nothing is better suited to mental disci- 

 pline than the demonstrations of the truths they contain ; the truths 

 themselves are of great value as subsidiary to other branches of 

 knowledge, particularly the knowledge of nature and of the princi- 

 ples of art ; and the practice of conducting long demonstrations on 

 the black board in the presence of a class, accustoms the student to 

 express himself with perspicuity and correctness. 



All great and accurate attainments in Natural Philosophy and As- 

 tronomy, are founded in the science of Mechanics, which is, indeed, 

 little more than an expansion of the three great laws of motion, follow- 

 ed out through all their consequences. So long as mankind supposed 

 that motion was one thing on earth and another thing among the 

 heavenly bodies, they made no progress in investigating the law:^of 

 the Universe. We owe to Newton the full development of the doc- 

 trine of the uniformity of the laws of nature. The Principia first 

 taught the world how to ascend from simple observations and exper- 

 iments on the motion of bodies around us, to a knowledge of the 

 sublime but equally simple movements of the spheres. 



A philosophical education, therefore, must have its foundations laid 

 deep in the science of Mechanics. But it must not stop here. The 

 student of philosophy must not only have his mind stored with these 

 universal truths, but he must be initiated in the daily practice of phi- 

 losophizing, both upon the phenomena of nature and upon the opera- 

 tions of art, which latter are, indeed, for the most part, only operations 

 of the powers of nature as modified by the ingenuity of man. We 

 would have our men of education commence philosophers as soon 

 as they begin the study of philosophy, and ever afterwards cherish 

 the habit of seeking an explanation of every phenomenon whether of 

 art or nature that is presented to their observation. 



The want of a good text book for classes in Natural Philosophy, has 

 long been felt in our colleges. Enfield's Institutes, although a crude 

 compilation, abounding in errors,* and far behind the present state 

 of science, long maintained its ground in spite of all these diadvan- 

 tages, because, imperfect as it was, it was better adapted on the whole 



* See a copious list of these errors, pointed out by Professor Fisher, in Vol. iii, 

 p. 125 of this Journal. 



