having subsequently undergone a minute revision, they have had, on the whole, as much care bestowed upon them as if they had been originally intended for the press. Without such attentive preparation they would not have been sent forth. It may be added that none of them have before appeared in print. To two or three of the Discourses, where any elucidation of the circumstances attending the composition, or any additional matter, appeared to be appropriate, the author has appended supplementary notes in preference to loading the Preface with explanations, which would be unintelligible till the subject of them was before the Reader. January 10. 1852. DISCOURSE I. ON THE MUTUAL RELATIONS OF THE SCIENCES. INDEPENDENTLY of the particular views which every science separately presents, there are certain general views which unfold themselves when we contemplate the various departments of Knowledge, in their mutual relations, common features, and joint results. The gratification which is experienced in exploring the field of any single science is of a high character, but we seem to enjoy a still higher order of pleasure when we ascend above the level of that science, if I may be allowed the expression, to cast our eyes on the prospect which spreads on every side, and mark the comprehensive relations and bearings, the lights and the shadows, the contrasts and the harmonies of the whole intellectual landscape. Of the general speculations which are suggested by such a contemplation of the sciences, several are exceedingly attractive. It is highly interesting, for example, to direct our consideration to the influence of the sciences on the institutions of society, to trace their utility B 7 in the common business of life, and to mark the thousand ways in which they have enabled man to multiply his enjoyments, and to extend his dominion over nature. It is not less interesting to consider their effects upon the mind of man itself; the way in which they have developed and enhanced his intellectual powers, assuaged his appetites and passions, dispelled his prejudices, fostered his finer feelings, and raised him from the degradation of mere animal existence into a moral and intellectual being. And I may mention as a third general view full of interest, a consideration of the marks of power, wisdom, and beneficent design, which all the sciences unite in offering to our admiration. The view, however, which it is my object to take in the present essay is different from all these, and can prove deficient in attraction only from an unskilful method of exhibiting it to the mind. It is a view of the sciences as connected together by mutual relations, and reciprocally receiving and bestowing light. A superficial survey might lead us to consider the different departments of human knowledge, as so many separate and insulated objects of pursuit, or spheres of exertion; but a closer inspection will discover that some of them are connected by the most intimate ties; that others which appear at first to have no principles in common and no conceivable affinity, assist in illustrating the same laws of nature or events of time, and that they are all |