A Glance at the Physical Sciences, Or, The Wonders of Nature, in Earth, Air, and Sky

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Geo. C. Rand, Cornhill. Wm. J. Reynolds, 1852 - 352 pages
 

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Page 278 - TOIL on ! toil on ! ye ephemeral train, Who build in the tossing and treacherous main; Toil on — for the wisdom of man ye mock, With your sand-based structures and domes of rock ; Your columns the fathomless fountains...
Page 278 - The sea-snatched isle is the home of men, And mountains exult where the wave hath been. But why do ye plant 'neath the billows dark The wrecking reef for the gallant bark ? There are snares enough on the tented field, 'Mid the...
Page 279 - Like the tribes whom the desert devoured in their sin : From the land of promise ye fade and die, Ere its verdure gleams forth on your weary eye ; As the kings of the cloud-crowned pyramid, Their noteless bones in oblivion hid, Ye slumber unmarked 'mid the desolate main, While the wonder and pride of your works remain.
Page 162 - I commonly rub it over beforehand with a finger, on which I put some pounded chalk. If a little mercury, or a few drops of spirit of wine, be put into it, the experiment succeeds the better. As soon as this phial and nail are removed from the electrifying glass, or the prime conductor to which it...
Page 208 - While the mind is abstracted and elevated from sensible matter, it distinctly views pure forms, conceives the beauty of ideas, and investigates the harmony of proportions ; the manners themselves are sensibly corrected and improved; the affections composed and rectified ; the fancy calmed and settled ; and the understanding raised and excited to more divine contemplations.
Page 9 - This is a science which has in all ages engaged the attention of the poet, the philosopher, and the divine, and been the subject of their study and admiration.
Page 166 - It was not until the summer of 1752, that he was enabled to complete his grand and unparalleled discovery by experiment. The plan which he had originally proposed was, to erect, on some high tower or other elevated place, a sentry-box, from which should rise a pointed iron rod, insulated by being fixed in a cake of resin. Electrified clouds passing over this would, he conceived, impart...
Page 279 - Ye build — ye build — but ye enter not in, Like the tribes whom the desert devoured in their sin : From the land of promise ye fade and die, Ere its verdure gleams forth on your...
Page 6 - The one led me to see a system in every star. The other leads me to see a world in every atom. The one taught me, that this mighty globe, with the whole burden of its people, and of its countries, is but a grain of sand on the high field of immensity.
Page 40 - Nebulae, first opened the road to the conception that what was called the universe might be, and in all probability is, but a detached and minute portion of that interminable series of similar formations which ought to bear the same name.

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