as in concert upon a scientific plan, and brought to a common centre? With reference to some particular subjects, such measures have been of late years taken on a scale of Baconian magnitude. The system of observations instituted by the Great British Association with respect to Terrestrial Magnetism, if I am rightly informed as to the nature and scale of it, is one which Bacon would have welcomed as he welcomed the first tidings from Galileo's telescope; he would have accepted it an enterprise "dignum humano genere." A similar system of concerted observations is now in contemplation with regard to oceanic currents. As a specimen of the same thing in a more general character, take the "Admiralty Manual of Scientific Inquiry," to which I have already referred; a book of practical directions drawn up by some of the most eminent scientific men of our day with special reference to the progress of science in several of its most important departments; directions addressed not to men who are themselves engaged in the theoretical investigation of the subjects, or guided by any "marshalling idea," but to "officers of the navy and travellers in general," telling them what things to observe, in order that their observations may be available for the purposes of scientific inquiry. These are exactly what Bacon would have called "Topicæ Inquisitionis," -instructions for the examination of Nature "super articulos;" and the whole scheme is in perfect accordance, so far as it goes, with Bacon's notion of the way in which men might be set on work for the completing of a natural and experimental history. Why should it not go further? Who can believe that the subjects contained in this little volume are the only subjects to which this method of collecting observations can be applied? who venture to fix the limit beyond which, under such a system sagaciously devised, wisely administered, energetically carried out, and extended to all the departments of nature which admit of it, human discovery may not go?-J. S. DESCRIPTIO HISTORIE NATURALIS ET EXPERIMENTALIS, QUALIS SUFFICIAT ET SIT IN ORDINE AD BASIN ET FUNDAMENTA PHILOSOPHIÆ VERÆ. QUOD Instaurationem nostram per partes edamus, id eo spectat ut aliquid extra periculum ponatur. Non absimilis nos movet ratio ut aliam quandam operis particulam jam in præsenti subjungamus, et cum iis quæ supra absolvimus una edamus. Ea est descriptio et delineatio Historia Naturalis et Experimentalis, ejus generis quæ sit in ordine ad condendam philosophiam, et complectatur materiem probam, copiosam, et apte digestam ad opus interpretis quod succedit. Huic autem rei locus proprius foret quum ad Parascevas Inquisitionis ordine deventum fuerit. Hoc vero prævertere, nec locum proprium expectare, consultius nobis videtur; quod hujusmodi historia, qualem animo metimur et mox describemus, res perquam magnæ sit molis, nec sine magnis laboribus et sumptibus confici possit; ut quæ multorum opera indigeat, et (ut alibi diximus) opus sit quasi regium. Itaque occurrit illud, non abs re fore experiri si forte hæc aliquibus aliis curæ esse possint, ita ut dum nos destinata ordine perficiamus hæc pars quæ tam multiplex est et onerosa etiam vivis nobis (si ita divinæ placuerit majestati) instrui et parari possit, aliis una nobiscum in id sedulo incumbentibus; præsertim quum vires nostræ (si in hoc soli fuerimus) vix tantæ provinciæ sufficere videantur. Etenim quæ ad opus ipsum intellectus pertinent nos marte nostro fortasse vincemus. At intellectus materialia tam late patent ut ea (tanquam per procuratores et mercatores) undique conquiri et importari debeant. Accedit etiam illud, quod cœptis nostris vix dignum esse æstimemus ut in re tali quæ fere omnium industria pateat nos ipsi tempus teramus. Quod autem caput rei est ipsi nunc præstabimus; ut ejusmodi historiæ modum et descriptionem, qualis intentioni nostræ satisfaciat, diligenter et exacte proponamus; ne homines non admoniti aliud agant, et ad exemplum naturalium historiarum quæ jam in usu sunt se regant, atque ab instituto nostro multum aberrent. Illud interim quod sæpe diximus etiam hoc loco præcipue repetendum est; non si omnia omnium ætatum ingenia coivissent aut posthac coierint; non si universum genus humanum philosophiæ dedisset operam aut dederit, et totus terrarum orbis nihil aliud fuisset aut fuerit quam academiæ et collegia et scholæ virorum doctorum; tamen absque tali qualem nunc præcipiemus Historia Naturali et Experimentali, ullos qui genere humano digni sint progressus in philosophia et scientiis fieri potuisse aut posse. Contra vero, comparata et bene instructa hujusmodi historia, additis experimentis auxiliaribus et luciferis quæ in ipso interpretationis curriculo occurrent aut eruenda erunt, paucorum annorum opus futuram esse inquisitionem naturæ et scientiarum omnium. Itaque aut hoc agendum est aut negotium deserendum. Hoc enim solo et unico modo fundamenta philosophiæ veræ et activæ stabiliri possunt; et simul perspicient homines, tanquam ex profundo somno excitati, quid inter ingenii placita et commenta ac veram et activam philosophiam intersit, et quid demum sit de natura naturam ipsam consulere. Primo igitur de hujusmodi historia conficienda præcepta dabimus in genere; deinde particularem ejus figuram hominibus sub oculos ponemus, inserentes interdum non minus ad quid inquisitio aptanda et referenda sit quam quid quæri debeat; scilicet, ut scopus rei bene intellectus et prævisus etiam alia hominibus in mentem redigat quæ a nobis fortasse prætermissa erunt. Historiam autem istam Historiam Primam sive Historiam Matrem appellare consuevimus. |