THE LAWS OF PHILOSOPHY. 
147 
of actual experiment, but imagined properties, which were 
assumed as data, it was putting on new forms almost every¬ 
day ; for one fanciful opinion had always a right to supplant 
another. Lord Chancellor Bacon was the first who discovered 
the fallacy of this doctrine ; he rejected all that chimerical non¬ 
sense which had so long usurped the name of philosophy, and 
wisely exclaimed, Non fingendum, aut excogitandum, quid 
natura fuit et faciat, sed inveniendum est,’’ that the operations 
of nature were not to be fancied, but diligently scrutinized. 
If we for a moment direct our attention to the solid parts of 
Great Britain, we perceive infinite variety branching out of 
unity of plan. We see chains of mountains, most of them 
almost barren, and affording a dreary abode to a few children of 
necessity; we see correspondingvallies, where nature pours out 
her abundance, and man and all animated beings serenely enjoy¬ 
ing the blessings of Providence—extensive plains, where harmless 
flocks enjoy a placid and sportive existence—barren hills, thick 
woods, and deep marshes, with rivers and lakes interspersed, 
where various orders of organized beings fulfil the purpose of 
creation, and hymn their equal God.’’ 
The temperature of the country is almost as diversified as the 
soil ; and both combined produces a diversity in the forms and 
constitutions of animals of the same species. 
These obvious varieties lead us to look for some modifications 
in the morhid phenomena ; for the diseases of animals are modi¬ 
fied by the same immutable and unerring laws that tend to pro¬ 
duce the great diversity in their appearance. 
“ Continuo has leges, eeternaque foedera certis 
Imposiiit natura locis, quo tempore primum.’' 
Let US study, then, those laws; let us understand their peculiar 
action on animal bodies, both in a state of health as well as dis¬ 
ease ; for without this it is utterly impossible to develope all the 
nice intricacies of the healing art, or successfully to dispense its 
numerous blessings. 
It was from a strict and perpetual reference to the established 
operations of nature that the old mummery of medicine, with 
all its cabalistic and unintelligible mysticism, has given place 
