before. By the ancient cultivators of this science it was chiefly regarded as an object of curiosity, or as a source of amusement. But in the hands of later chemists it has been converted into a most instructive, interesting, and invaluable science. There is scarcely an art of human life which it is not fitted to subserve; scarcely a department of human inquiry or labour, either for health, pleasure, ornament, or profit, which it may not be made, in its present improved state, eminently to promote.

To the husbandman this science furnishes principles and agents of inestimable value. It teaches him the food of plants; the choice and use of manures; and the best means of promoting the vigour, growth, productiveness, and preservation of the various vegetable tribes. To the manufacturer chemistry has lately become equally fruitful of instruction and assistance. In the arts of brewing, tanning, dyeing, and bleaching, its doctrines are precious guides. In making soap, glass, pottery, and all metallic wares, its principles are daily applied, and are capable of still more useful application as they become better understood. Indeed, every mechanic art, in the different processes of which heat, moisture, solution, mixture, or fermentation are necessary, must ever keep pace in improvement with this branch of philosophy. To the physician this science is of still greater value, and is daily growing in importance. He learns from it to compound his medicines; to disarm poisons of their force; to adjust remedies to diseases; and to adopt the general means of preserving health. To the student of natural history the doctrines of chemistry furnish instruction and assistance at every step of his course; as many of his inquiries can be prosecuted with success only through the medium of careful analysis. To the

public economist chemistry presents a treasure of useful information. By means of this science alone can he expect to attack with success the destroying pestilence, so far as it is an object of human prevention, and to guard against other evils to which the state of the elements gives rise. And in order to the prosecution of numberless plans of the philanthropist to any extent or effect, some acquaintance with the subject in question seems indispensably necessary. Finally, to the domestic economist this science abounds with pleasing and wholesome lessons. It enables him to make a proper choice of meats and drinks; it directs him to those measures with respect to aliment, cookery, cloathing, and respiration, which have the best tendency to promote health, enjoyment, and cheapness of living; and it sets him on his guard against many unseen evils, to which those who are ignorant of its laws are continually exposed. In a word, from a speculative science, chemistry, during the eighteenth century, has become eminently and extensively a practical one; from an obscure, humble, and uninteresting place among the objects of study, it has risen to a high and dignified station; and instead of merely gratifying curiosity, or furnishing amusement, it promises a degree of utility, of which no one can calculate the consequences, or see the end.

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But while the great improvements which have been made in chemical philosophy during the last century are readily admitted, it may not be improper, before closing this chapter, to take notice of gross abuses which have been adopted by some of the most celebrated cultivators of the science in question, and which have contributed to lessen its value in the view of many serious inquirers. A few extravagant and enthusiastic votaries of chemistry have undertaken, on chemical princi

ples, to account for all the phenomena of motion, life, and mind; and on those very facts which clearly prove wise design, and the superintending care of an INFINITE INTELLIGENCE, have attempted to build a fabric of atheistical philosophy. This is a remarkable instance of those oppositions of science falsely so called, of which an inspired writer speaks, and for which the past age has been re markably distinguished.

How far the present fashionable system of chemical doctrine and language may stand the test of future experiments, and command the assent of future generations, is far from being certain. He who has attended to the course of things in the short space of time since it was published, will see little reason to expect for it that undis turbed and permanent reign which its advocates have fondly hoped. It is somewhere remarked by Lord BACON, that the sciences are apt to suffer by being too soon reduced to a system. There are probably few sciences to which this remark ap plies with such peculiar force as to chemistry. The structure at present most popular is fair and beautiful. An engaging simplicity reigns in almost every part. But many believe that this simplicity is deceptive. Some of the doctrines which hold an important place in the fabric are too vague and conjectural to be admitted with full confidence, and others are daily undergoing modifications, which threaten still further and more essential changes. Notwithstanding the mathematical precision with which the sanguine chemist affects to speak of his axioms, yet how discordant are the results of different experiments! These facts, it must be acknowledged, "betray the lameness of some received principles, and excite suspicions with respect to the legitimacy of some capital analyses." But the enlightened and enterprizing

philosopher will not be discouraged by such proofs of the imperfection of human knowledge. The builders of erroneous systems become indirectly the promoters of truth, by contributing to the examination and rejection of falsehood. We can only hope, in the present world, to be continually approximating toward the point of complete philosophic illumination, without ever reaching it; and this approximation must always be made through successive defiles of illusion, empiricism, and false theory. In this course honesty, attention, and patient perseverance, are the great requisites for obtaining success. With these, though we cannot expect to develope all the mysteries of nature, which is the prerogative of its AUTHOR alone; yet we may hope, in time, to detect analogies, to ascertain laws, to systematize scattered facts, and to unlock treasures of science, which appear at present far removed from human scrutiny, and against the knowledge of which the feebleness of our powers seems to raise everlasting barriers.

CHAPTER III.

NATURAL HISTORY.

THIS department of science scarcely yields to either of the preceding in the extent and value of the improvements which it has received within the period under consideration. Many of the objects, indeed, to which natural history relates, have been, in some degree, known and studied by man, from the earliest ages, as means of sup

plying the wants, and obtaining the luxuries of life. SOLOMON, the king of Israel, we are told, spake of trees, from the cedar tree that is in Lebanon, even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall: he spake, also, of beasts, and of birds, and of creeping things, and of fishes. And, if we may judge from the respectful terms in which such studies are mentioned, in this and in various other passages of sacred scripture, we may con-clude they were held in high estimation in very early times. It was not, however, until long after the revival of letters, and science in Europe, that natural history began to receive the attention due to its importance. Toward the close of the se-venteenth century, after several learned societies: in Great-Britain, and on the continent, had been formed, the taste for this branch of study commenced, and has been ever since gradually extending itself over the civilized world..

At an early period of the eighteenth century, many persons were busily employed in collecting and publishing facts in Natural History, especially. in Zoology and Botany. But though these inquirers rendered important service to this department of philosophy, it was rather by communicating a knowledge of details, than by enlightened and correct philosophizing on the subjects which came before them. Scarcely any thing had been effected, on a great scale, previous to the appearance of LINNAEUS, an illustrious Swede, who, by his first publications, in 1735, gave a new aspect to the whole science, and commenced what has been with much justice styled the "golden age" of Natural History.-Almost every thing that had been done in the great business of Classification, before his time, was confused, and ex

0 1 Kings iv. 33.