A Popular History of Science

Front Cover
G. Routledge and Sons, 1881 - 673 pages
 

Contents


Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

Popular passages

Page 188 - Every body continues in its state of rest or of uniform motion in a straight line, except in so far as it may be compelled by impressed forces to change that state.
Page 308 - It is hardly necessary to add that anything which any insulated body, or system of bodies, can continue to furnish without limitation, cannot possibly be a material substance; and it appears to me to be extremely difficult, if not quite impossible, to form any distinct idea of anything capable of being excited and communicated in the manner the Heat was excited and communicated in these experiments, except it be MOTION.
Page 664 - THERE rolls the deep where grew the tree. O earth, what changes hast thou seen ! There where the long street roars hath been The stillness of the central sea. The hills are shadows, and they flow From form to form, and nothing stands ; They melt like mist, the solid lands, Like clouds they shape themselves and go.
Page 298 - ENLARGED THE RESOURCES OF HIS COUNTRY, INCREASED THE POWER OF MAN, AND ROSE TO AN EMINENT PLACE AMONG THE MOST ILLUSTRIOUS FOLLOWERS OF SCIENCE AND THE REAL BENEFACTORS OF THE WORLD.
Page 126 - To sum up the whole, we should say that the aim of the Platonic philosophy was to exalt man into a god. The aim of the Baconian philosophy was to provide man with what he requires while he continues to be man. The aim of the Platonic philosophy was to raise us far above vulgar wants. The aim of the Baconian philosophy was to supply our vulgar wants. The former aim was noble; but the latter was attainable.
Page 440 - Suppose a number of equal waves of water to move upon the surface of a stagnant lake, with a certain constant velocity, and to enter a narrow channel leading out of the lake ; suppose, then, another similar cause to have excited another equal series of waves, which arrive at the same channel with the same velocity and at the same time with the first. Neither series of waves will destroy the other, but their effects will be combined : if they enter the channel in such a manner that the elevations...
Page 193 - that every particle of matter in the universe attracts every other particle, with a force whose direction is that of the line joining the two, and whose magnitude is directly as the product of their masses, and inversely as the square of their distances from each other.
Page 138 - Saw it himself, and shew'd us it. But life did never to one man allow Time to discover worlds and conquer too ; Nor can so short a line sufficient be To fathom the vast depths of Nature's sea. The work he did we ought t' admire ; And were unjust if we should more require From his few years, divided 'twixt th...
Page 299 - This potent commander of the elements — this abridger of time and space — this magician, whose cloudy machinery has produced a change on the world, the effects of which, extraordinary as they are, are, perhaps, only now beginning to be felt — was not only the most profound man of science — the most successful combiner of powers, and calculator of numbers, as adapted to practical purposes — was not only one of the most generally wellinformed, but one of the best and kindest of human beings.
Page 598 - So, naturalists observe, a flea Has smaller fleas that on him prey; And- these have smaller still to bite 'em, And so proceed ad infinitum.

Bibliographic information