William Whewell

“ In passing from Astronomy to Mechanics we make a transition from the formal to the physical sciences;—from time and space to force and matter;—from phenomena to causes. Hitherto we have been concerned only with the paths and orbits, the periods and cycles, the angles and distances, of the objects to which our sciences applied, namely, the heavenly bodies. How these motions are produced;—by what agencies, impulses, powers, they are determined to be what they are;—of what nature are the objects themselves;—are speculations which we have hitherto not dwelt upon. ”

“ In this favored branch of knowledge, the most recondite and delicate discoveries can no more suffer doubt or contradiction, than the most palpable facts of sense which the face of nature offers to our notice. The last great discovery in astronomy—the motion of the stars arising from Aberration—is as obvious to the vast population of astronomical observers in all parts of the world, as the motion of the stars about the pole is to the casual night wanderer. ”

“ It may appear presumptuous to speak of the failure of those whom, like Berzelius and Mohs, we acknowledge as our masters, at a period when, probably, they and some of their admirers still hold them to have succeeded in their attempt to construct a consistent system. But I conceive that my office as an historian requires me to exhibit the fortunes of this science in the most distinct form of which they admit, and that I cannot evade the duty of attempting to seize the true aspect of recent occurrences in the world of science. ”

“ To him it will appear natural and reasonable, that after journeying so long among the beautiful and orderly laws by which the universe is governed, we find ourselves at last approaching to a Source of order and law, and intellectual beauty:—that, after venturing into the region of life and feeling and will, we are led to believe the Fountain of life and will not to be itself unintelligent and dead, but to be a living Mind, a Power which aims as well as acts. To us this doctrine appears like the natural cadence of the tones to which we have so long been listening ”

“ When we look back at such a difference of opinion, having in our minds, as we unavoidably have, the clear and irresistible considerations by which the Copernican Doctrine is established for us, it is difficult for us not to attribute superior sagacity and candor to those who held that side of the question, and to imagine those who clung to the Ptolemaic Hypothesis to have been blind and prejudiced; incapable of seeing the beauty of simplicity and symmetry, or indisposed to resign established errors, and to accept novel and comprehensive truths. ”

“ One of the advantages of the study of the history and nature of science in which we are now engaged is, that it warns us of the hopeless and presumptuous character of such attempts to understand the government of the world by the aid of science, without throwing any discredit upon the reality of our knowledge;—that while it shows how solid and certain each science is, so long as it refers its own facts to its own ideas, it confines each science within its own limits, and condemns it as empty and helpless, when it pronounces upon those subjects which are extraneous to it. ”

“ We may obtain, by such means, Logic and Metaphysics, and even Geometry and Algebra; but out of such materials we shall never form Mechanics and Optics, Chemistry and Physiology. How impossible the formation of these sciences is without a constant and careful reference to observation and experiment;—how rapid and prosperous their progress may be when they draw from such sources the materials on which the mind of the philosopher employs itself;—the history of those branches of knowledge for the last three hundred years abundantly teaches us. ”

“ But another reason why, in the history of Botany, as in that of Astronomy, the progress of knowledge forms an unbroken line from the earliest times, is precisely the great difference of the kind of knowledge which has been attained in the two cases. In Astronomy, the discovery of general truths began at an early period of civilization; in Botany, it has hardly yet begun; and thus, in each of these departments of study, the lore of the ancient is homogeneous with that of the modern times, though in the one case it is science, in the other, the absence of science, which pervades all ages. ”

“ But let us ask, whether it would really have been a merit in the founders of Physical Astronomy, to assume that the celestial revolutions resulted from any selected class of known causes? When Newton first attempted to explain the motions of the moon by the force of gravity, and failed because the measures to which he referred were erroneous, would it have been philosophical in him, to insist that the difference which he found ought to be overlooked, since otherwise we should be compelled to go to causes other than those which we usually witness in action? ”

“ To try wrong guesses is apparently the only way to hit upon right ones. The character of the true philosopher is, not that he never conjectures hazardously, but that his conjectures are clearly conceived and brought into rigid contact with facts. He sees and compares distinctly the ideas and the things,—the relations of his notions to each other and to phenomena. Under these conditions it is not only excusable, but necessary for him, to snatch at every semblance of general rule;—to try all promising forms of simplicity and symmetry. ”

“ But if we are thus unable to excuse the conduct of Galileo’s judges, I do not see how we can give our unconditional admiration to the philosopher himself. Perhaps the conventional decorum which, as we have seen, was required in treating of the Copernican system, may excuse or explain the furtive mode of insinuating his doctrines which he often employs, and which some of his historians admire as subtle irony, while others blame it as insincerity. But I do not see with what propriety Galileo can be looked upon as a “Martyr of Science.” ”

“ Prelude to the Inductive Epoch of Newton. WE have now to contemplate the last and most splendid period of the progress of Astronomy;—the grand completion of the history of the most ancient and prosperous province of human knowledge;—the steps which elevated this science to an unrivalled eminence above other sciences;—the first great example of a wide and complex assemblage of phenomena indubitably traced to their single simple cause;—in short, the first example of the formation of a perfect Inductive Science. ”

“ It is our business to determine the character of each great discovery which appears in the progress of science. Men are fond of repeating that such discoveries are most commonly the result of accident; and we have seen reason to reject this opinion, since that preparation of thought by which the accident produces discovery is the most important of the conditions on which the successful event depends. Such accidents are like a spark which discharges a gun already loaded and pointed. In the case of Galvani, indeed, the discovery may, with more propriety than usual, be said to have been casual ”

“ The business of constructing any science may be figured as the task of forming a road on which our reason can travel through a certain province of the external world. We have to throw a bridge which may lead from the chambers of our own thoughts, from our speculative principles, to the distant shore of material facts. But in all cases the abyss is too wide to be crossed, except we can find some intermediate points on which the piers of our structure may rest. ”

“ WE have already noticed, that, after the first great achievements of the founders of sound speculation, in the different departments of human knowledge, had attracted the interest and admiration which those who became acquainted with them could not but give to them, there appeared a disposition among men to lean on the authority of some of these teachers;—to study the opinions of others as the only mode of forming their own;—to read nature through books;—to attend to what had been already thought and said, rather than to what really is and happens. ”

“ I may perhaps take the liberty of remarking that the system of terms which he has constructed, may, according to our principles, be called rather a Terminology than a Nomenclature: that is, they are analogous more nearly to the terms by which botanists describe the parts and organs of plants, than to the names by which they denote genera and species. As we have seen in the History, plants as well as animals are subject to morphological laws; and the names which are given to organs in consequence of those laws are a part of the Terminology of the science. ”