VIII. On Voice and Language; Vocal Imitations, and Ventriloquism. 254 IX. On natural and inarticulate Language, or that of Animals; arti- ficial and articulate Language, or that of Man X. On legible Language, imitative and symbolical XI. On the literary Education of former Times; and especially that II. On the Nature and Duration of the Soul, as explained by popular Tradition, by various Schools of Philosophy, and by Revelation 332 IX. On the Origin, Connnexion, and Character of the Passions X. On the leading Characters and Passions of savage and civilized XI. On Temperaments and Constitutional Propensities. XII. On Pathognomy, or the Expression of the Passions XIII. On Physiognomy and Craniognomy, or the Expression of the THE воок OF NATURE. SERIES I. LECTURE I. ON MATTER, AND A MATERIAL WORLD. In the comprehensive range of science proposed to be treated of in the SURREY INSTITUTION, the department to which I shall have the honour of beseeching your attention will be that of NATURAL PHILOSOPHY, OF PHYSICS, in the most extensive sense of these terms: that branch of science which makes use of the individual principles and discoveries of every other branch within the range of nature, as the architect makes use of the bricks, the mortar, the wood, and the marble of different artisans, and builds up the whole into a perfect edifice; which takes a bird's eye view, as it were, of a picturesque and spreading landscape from some commanding eminence; and, without having laboured in the details of arranging the ground, of cultivating the soil, of planting the woods, of winding the rivers, of enriching the scenery with flocks, herds, bridges, and buildings, points out the general connexion of part with part, and the harmony which flows from their combined effect. This, indeed, is to employ these terms in a somewhat wider sense than has been assigned to them in modern times; for even the Natural Philosophy of Lord Bacon, though it embraces the two divisions of special physic and metaphysic, as he calls them, does not extend to the doctrine of "the nature and state of man," which is transferred to another division of general science ;* yet that the study of physics, or natural philosophy, had this more extended meaning among the Greeks and Romans, is clear, since the poem of Empedocles on "Nature," and that of Lucretius, on "the Nature of Things," the two most complete physiological works of which we have any account in antiquity, were expressly formed upon this comprehensive scale; and hence the philosophy of geology and mineralogy, the philosophy of botany and zoology, the philosophy of human understanding, the philosophy of society and whatever relates to it, or general and synthetical surveys of these different departments of science, are as equally branches of physics, or the nature of things, as equally part of the BOOK OF NATURE, as any separate branch which is more ordinarily so arranged. Thus explained, the scope of the study before us is almost universal, and only a small portion of it can be engaged in during a single series. I shall endeavour to advance in it as I am able; and the infinite variety it presents to us will at all times, I trust, prevent the pursuit from proving dull or uninteresting. Could it indeed be completed as it ought, it would constitute the PHILOSOPHIA PRIMA, or universal science of the great author I have just adverted to. My sole object, however, is to communicate information so far as I may * Advancement of Learning, b. ii. p. 52. 56. vol. i. 4to. General science is here divided into three classes: I. Doctrina de numine, or Divine Philosophy. II. Doctrina de naturâ, or Natural Philosophy. III. Doctrina de homine, or Human Philosophy. The common stem from which they ramify is denominated philosophia prima, primitive, summary, or universal philosophy. be able; to exhaust nothing, but to touch upon many things; to give a desire for learning, rather than to consummate the learning that may be desirable; to run over the vast volume of nature, not in its separate pages, but in its table of contents, so that we may hereafter be the better prepared for studying it more minutely, and for feeling in some measure at home upon the various subjects it presents to us. Yet, after all, lectures alone can do but little, whatever the energy or perspicuity with which they may be delivered. They may, perhaps, awaken a latent propensity, or enkindle a transient inclination; but unless the newborn flame be fed and fostered, unless it be nourished by study, as well as excited by hearing, it will perish as soon as lighted up; or, if it continue, will only blaze forth in a foppery of knowledge far more contemptible than the grossest ignorance. Let us, then, enter upon our respective duties with equal ardour. The path of science is open to every variety of age, and almost to every variety of education. Thousands at this moment behind are pressing forward, and will surpass those that are before; and the richest and most gratifying reward I can ever receive will be, to find that many to whom this course of study is delivered will hereafter be able to communicate to me the same proportion of information, which it is my duty to suppose I can at present communicate to them. One of the first inquiries that can ever press upon the mind must relate to the nature of MATTER, and the origin of the world around us: what is this common substance from which every thing visible has proceeded, and to which every thing visible is reducible? has it existed from all eternity? or has it been called into being by the voice of an Omnipotent Creator? and in either case, has it uniformly exhibited its present harmony and arrangement, or has there been a period in which it was destitute of form and order, a waste and shapeless chaos? These are questions which have tried the wisdom of man in all ages; and, I may add, which in all ages have proved its littleness, and the need we stand in of illumination from a superior source. Such, upon one or two points, we have received; upon the rest we are still ignorant; and, but for what we have received, we should have been still ignorant upon the whole. If we search into the systems of all the ancient schools of philosophy, amid an infinite variety of jarring opinions in other respects, we find them, perhaps without an exception, concurring in a belief of the eternity of matter, or that general substance which constitutes the visible world around us; which was sometimes conceived to be intelligent in many of its corpuscles, and unintelligent in the rest, as was taught by Democritus; sometimes intelligent as a whole, though unintelligent in its separate parts, as taught both by Aristotle and Plato; and sometimes unintelligent in all its parts and particles, whether united or disjoined, which formed the dogma of Epicurus. Under some modification or other, however, the doctrine of the eternity of matter appears to have been universal among the philosophers of ancient nations. That a loose and floating idea of its creation, by the energy of a pure intelligence, is occasionally to be met with, and which probably existed as a remnant of patriarchal tradition, must be admitted; for the Tuscans were generally allowed to have entertained such an idea, and we find it frequently adverted to and opposed by the leaders of the different schools; but in no instance does it seem to have been imbodied or promulgated as a doctrine of philosophy. The grand motive for this general belief appears to have been a supposed absurdity in conceiving that any thing could be created out of nothing.* The Epicureans, and many other schools of philosophers, who borrowed it from them, perpetually appeal to this position. It was current, however, among many of the philosophers of Greece at a much earlier period; for Democritus expressly asserted, according to Diogenes Laertius, "that nothing could This, and two or three subsequent passages, in the present lecture, are given summarily from an ampler and more recondite view of the subj The author's prolegomena to his translation of "THE NATURE OF THINGS." |