Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1858-11-19

hardly possihln firm alton. and whally i'm
possible continuance, The cI,bc itself. ~
well a. the srienre of its inhabitants. has
b en- cxJi rel accor,lur 10 the Lava which
i,,rs,ids Q sudden and rapii leapior forward.
and decrecs that each successive step. pre-
tAred nv the last shall f,cilitat, the next
Even Columbus followed e,vpr,l successful
discoveries on n smaller scale. and i nv
anne believed - have had, unknown to him.
apre ieceseor in the great exploit by which he
pierced the nj ht Of ages and info ded now
world to the eyes of the oil. The arts atf,rd
no exception TO the general law Dsmos-
themes had eminent furerunncrS, rcriele- the
last Of them. Homer niust lave had pre-
deccssors Of great merit. though doubtless
10 far surpassed By him as Fra Bart,lomeo
and Pietro Perugino were BY Michael .'ncclJ
and Raphael. Dantcs owed mach 70 ": III:
ho may be allowed to have ave-, thro1ph
his Latin Mentor. - :. n.tlc h. the "a
'srecian; ard Milton tal both the ,..,tors
and the poets Of tn, ancient Narli f,r bis
predecessors and lis masters. The art OF
war itself is no exception 10 the ruiz, The
plan Of bringing IN ovcrpowering rec t.
lear on a given point had been trie, occ.ss
iJnally before Frederick II. r,riaecd il b. a
system, and the " wellington. and Nappleons
Of our own day made it the foundation Of
their strategy as it had ais1 been previously
the handspring Of our naval tactics. It has
"fteIf ihc' e>en nctd that the inFenti N O!
!9sarithms stan9 alone IN the hi<try OF
science, Us ha' 'IiG feFh p"eceand ny m step
leading towards the discover. mere Is
however, great lnarcuracy Ia TINS stsi'1,cns,
ior NOT o'hs was the doctrine OF infn;te'imafs
familiar to liz illustri rus author. AMI the
relation Of geometrical to arithmetical $ ,ries
well known, but he had himself srac} cut
several methods of great Ingenuity and utility
fss that known by tie nam Of Napier 5
Zones -m"thols that arr naw forgotten,
eelips d as they were by the c1nsummAti9a
which has iinmortalizrt Lis name. s. the
Inventive powers Of Watt, preceded as he
was by Worcester and Newcomer. but Ear
more materially by Gauss and Pipin, had
been exercised on some admirable contrivan-
ees,now forgotten, before he made the step
which created the steam engine anex-now
only the parallel motion, possibly eorolary
~ the propositi N On circular motion in the
Pnncipia, but the separate cond luSttion and
above all, the governor, perhaps the mos;
exquisite of m chauical inventions and now
We have those here present. who apply t5r
like principle to the diffusion OF knowledge,
aware, as they must be, that It's explnsi n
has the same happy ehect naturally preven-
tinS mischief from its EXCESS WHEN tue sAiii
OF the great ncch;tnist gave artificially to
steam, thus rendering lis. or CINE rs SAFE as
it is powerful. The grand difference, then,
between one discovery or Invention aud
another is in degree rather than in kind; the
degree IN which a person, while he outstrips
those whom he comes after, also lives, as it
were, before his age. Nor can any doubt
exist that, in this respect, Newton stands
at the head of all who have extended the
bounds of knowledge. The sciences of dy-
namics anu OF optics are especially to be re-
xarded in this point of view but the former
in particular; and the completeness Of the
system which he unfoldcd, its having been
at the first elaborated and given in perfection,
its having, however now, stood the test Of
time, and survived, nay gained by, the mest
rigorous scrutiny, can he prc1icated Of this
systs m alone, at least in the 81 nc degree
That the calculus, and Hose rar.s o. lyua-
mics which are purely mathematical. should
thus endure for ever is a matter Of course -
But his system of the Universe rests partly
upon contingent truths, and might have
yielded to new experiments and more extern
ded observation. Nay, at times 1t has been
thought to iali, and further investigation
was deemed requisite 10 ascertain II any
error had been introduced-if any cireum-
stance had escape the notice Of the great
hunder The most mem )rable iastance
OF this kind is the discrepancy supposed to
have been found between the theory and the
fact in the motion Of the lunar apsides .whlth
about the middle of the last century occupied
the threo first analysts Of the age The:
error WIS discovered by th.ms Ives t. have
been their own in the process OF their inyasti-
CATION and this like all the other doubts that
were ever momentarily entertained only led in
each instance to new and NOR brilliant tri-
umphs of the system. Proii .i1as sapar 1ri
ty IN this cardinal point OF the Newt6nian 70
other discoveries, appear IN lnilest upon ex-
aiming almost any of the chapters in the h s.
tory of science Successive improvements
have, by extending our views, constantly dis
placed the system that appeared firmly estab-
lisllcd. To take familiar instance how little
rem ms of Lavoisiers doctrine Of combustion
and Modification, except the negative posi-
ii ms, the subyersion of the system Of Stahi .
The substance having most emineatlv the
properties of an acid (chorinel is found Il
have no oxygen at all while many substances
ab,undinr in oxygen including :.lkalles tn IN
selves, have no acid property whenever: and
without the ace s. Of oxygen,rs or of any
h-r gas heat and fame ara produced in
excess. Tue doctrines of free tr.lde had not
long been promulgatad by Smith before
Bentham demonstrated that his exception Of
usury was groundles: and his theory has
been repeatedly proved erroneous on colonial
establishment, as we'll as his exception to il
nv, tho NAVIGATION lnws. and ton innarfnction