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

peal to the incontestable evidence that
proves it strictly true. B5 d rare felici;
ty these doctrines gained the universal
assent of mankind as soon as they were
clearly understood; and their originality
has never been seriously called in qnes-
ton. Some doubts stiny been faised
respecting his inven'ing the calculus
doubts raised in consequence Of his 90
long Withholding the publication Of bis
method no sooner was the inquiry in
stituted than the evidence produced prov.
ed 50 decisive that all men IN all totins
tries acknowledged him to have been by
several years the earliest inventor, and
i.cibn tz, at the utm ost. the first publish.
er, the only questions raised being, FIRST,
whether or not he had borrowed ifutfi
Newton; and next. whether, as second
inventor, he could have any merit at all.
both which questions have long since
been decided in favor of Leibaitz. But
undeniable though it be that Newton
made the great steps of this progress, and
made them without any anticipation OF
participation by others, it is equally cer-
tain that there had been approaches in
former times by preceding philosophers
to the same discoveries. Cavalleri, 63
his Geometry of Indivisibles (le35. Rob
erval, by his method ofTangents 1867
had both. given solutions which Des-
cartes could not attempt; and it is re-
m ,rkablc that Cavalier regarded curves
as poly.ons, surfaces as composed Of
lines, while Roberval viewed gcomctrl.
cal quantities as generated by motion; so
that the one approached to the differen-
tal calculus, the other to fuxions; and
Fermat, in the interval between them,
comes still nearer the great discovery by
his determination of ma xima and mini.
ma, and his drawing of t,ngents. More
recently Hudden had made public SINH
lar methods invented by SchGtin; and
what is material. treating the subject al
gebraically, while those just now men,
toned had rather dealt with it geomct-
really. 1t is thus easy to perceive how
near an approach had been made to the
calculus before the great event of its &.
nal discovery. There had in like man
ner been approaches made to the law of
gravitation. and the dynanimical SYSTEM
of the universe. Galileo's important
propositions on motor, especially on
the curvilincar motion, and Kepler's
laws upon the elliptical form Of the
planetary orbits, the proportion Of the
areas to the times. and Of the periodic
times to the mean distances; and Huy-
gems thcorems on centrifugal forces had
been followed by still nearer approaches
to the doctrine of attraction. Borelli
had distinctly ascribed the motion Of the
satellites to their being drawn towards
the principal planets. ard thus prevent
ed from flying off by the centrifugal force :.
Even the composition ofwhite light. and
the different action of bodies upon its
component parts. had been vaguely con.
jectured by Ant de Dominis, Archbish-
o. Of Spa!atro, at the beginning. and
more precisely in the middle of the l7th
century by Marcus (kroaland,of Prague)
unknown to Newton, who only refers to
the Archbishop's work: while the treatise
of Hnysens on light, Grimaldi's obser-
vation on colors by intlexion, as we'll as
on the elonsation Of the image in the
prismatic spectrum, bad been brought to
his attention. although much less near to
his own great discovery than Marcuss
experiment. Bat all this only shows
that the discoveries of Newton, great and
rapid as were the steps by which they
advanced our knowledge, yet obeyed the
law of ontinuity. or rather of gradual
progress, which governs ell human ap.
p:oaches towards perfection. The limit
ed nature Of man $ faculties precludes
the possibility of his ever reaching at
once the utmost excellence of which
they are capable Survey the whole
circle of the sciences, and trace the histo-
ry Of our progress in each. you find this
is TO be the universal rule. In chymi-
cal philo sophy the dreams of the Alchy.
mists prepared the way fer the more ra.
tonal, thoug h erroneous. theory of Stahl;
and it was by repeated improvements
that his errors, so long prevalent, were
at length exploited, giving place to the
sound doctriu, which is now esta 5llshed
The great discoveries of Black and Priest
Iy, on heat and acriform fluids, had been
preceded by the happy conjcctures OF
Newton and the experiments of Others
Nay, Notare had we'll nigh discovered
the absorption of heat, the constitution
Of the atmosphere, and the oxyda,lon oi
metals; and by a few more trials nigh,
have asccrtainel it. Cuvier had beer
preceded by inquirers vino took sounG
views of fossil osteology, among whom
the truly origir al genius ,f Hunter fill!
the foremost place. The inductive sys.
tenn of Bacon had been, at least in it,
practice, known to his predecessors. Oh.
servations and even experiments were
not unknown 10 the ancient philosopher
though mingled with gross errors; il
early times. almost in the dark ages. ex
perimcntal inquiries had teen carried o,
with success by Friar Bacon, ard tina
method ac'ually rec ,mmended in trea
tise, as it was two centuries later b,
Leonardo da Ninoi. and at the latte
end OF the next century e ,lbcrt exam
incd the whole subject Of magnetic &C
ticn entirely by experiments So tha
Lord Bacons claim to be regarded a
the father Of modern philosophy rest
upon the important, the invaluable ste]
os reducing to system the method o
investigation adopted by those eminen
men, generallzing it. and extending it.
appllcatic n to all matters of contingen
truth, exploding the errors, the absur,
dogmas, and fantastic subtleties of the
ancient schools, above all, confning tn,
subject of our inouirv and tho mamma,