a priori what the result will be of any hypothetical combination of them, whether total or partial.*

These observations have led us to the same conclusion with that which forms the great outline of Bacon's plan of philosophizing; and which Newton has so successfully exemplified in his inquiries concerning gravitation and the properties of light. While they point out, too, the respective provinces and uses of the analytic and the synthetic methods, they illustrate the etymological propriety of the names by which, in the Newtonian School, they are con tradistinguished from each other.

In fact, the meaning of the words analysis and synthesis, when applied to the two opposite modes of investigation in physics, is extremely analogous to their use in the practice of chemistry. The chief difference lies in this, that, in the former case, they refer to the logical processes of the understanding in the study of physical laws; in the latter, to the operative processes of the laboratory in the examination of material substances.

If the foregoing remarks are well founded, they lead to the correction of an oversight which occurs in the ingenious and elegant sketch of the History of Astronomy, lately published among the posthumous works of Mr. Smith; and which seems calculated to keep.out of view, if not entirely to explode that essential distinction which I have been endeavouring to establish, between the inductive

* "Itaque naturæ facienda est prorsus solutio et separatio; non per ignem certe, sed per anentem, tanquam ignem divinum." Nov. Organ. Lib. II. Aphor. xvi. The remainder of the aphorism is equally worthy of attention; in reading which, however, as well as the rest of Bacon's philosophical works, I must request, for a reason afterwards to be mentioned, that the word law may be substituted for form, wherever it may occur.-An attention to this circumstance will be found of much use in studying the Novum Organon.

A similar idea, under other metaphorical disguises, often occurs in Bacon. Considering the circumstances in which he wrote, logical precision was altogether impossible; yet it is astonishing with what force he conveys the spirit of the soundest philosophy of the eighteenth century. 'Neque enim in plano via sita est, sed ascendendo et descendendo; ascendendo primo ad axiomata, descendendo ad opera." Nov. Org. Lib. i. Aphor. ciii.

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logic of Bacon's followers, and the hypothetical theories of their predecessors.

"Philosophy" (says Mr. Smith) "is the science of the connecting principles of nature. Nature, after the "largest experience that common observation can acquire,

seems to abound with events which appear solitary and "incoherent with all that go before them; which there"fore disturb the easy movement of the imagination; "which make its ideas succeed each other, if one may say "so, by irregular starts and sallies; and which thus tend, "in some measure, to introduce a confusion and distrac❝tion and giddiness of mind. Philosophy, by represent"ing the invisible chains which bind together all these "disjointed objects, endeavours to introduce order into "this chaos of jarring and discordant appearances; to "allay this tumult of the imagination; and to restore it, "when it surveys the great revolutions of the universe, "to that tone of tranquillity and composure, which is both "most agreeable in itself, and most suitable to its nature. "Philosophy, therefore, may be regarded as one of those "arts which address themselves to the imagination, by "rendering the theatre of nature a more coherent, and, "therefore, a more magnificent spectacle, than otherwise "it would have appeared to be."

That this is one of the objects of philosophy, and one of the advantages resulting from it, I very readily admit.But, surely, it is not the leading object of that plan of inductive investigation which was recommended by Bacon, and which has been so skilfully pursued by Newton. Of all philosophical systems, indeed, hypothetical or legitimate, it must be allowed, that, to a certain degree, they both please the imagination and assist the memory, by introducing order and arrangement among facts, which had the appearance, before, of being altogether unconnected

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and isolated. But it is the peculiar and exclusive prerogative of a system fairly obtained by the method of induction, that, while it enables us to arrange facts already known, it furnishes the means of ascertaining, by synthetic reasoning, those which we have no access to examine by direct observation. The difference, besides, among hypothetical theories, is merely a difference of degree, arising from the greater or less ingenuity of their authors; whereas legitimate theories are distinguished from all others, radically and essentially; and, accordingly, while the former are liable to perpetual vicissitudes, the latter are as permanent as the laws which regulate the order of the

universe.

Mr. Smith himself has been led by this view of the object of philosophy, into expressions concerning the Newtonian discoveries, which seem to intimate, that, although he thought them far superiour, in point of ingenuity, to any thing the world had seen before, yet, that he did not consider them as so completely exclusive of a still happier system' in time to come, as the Newtonians are apt to imagine. "The system of Newton" (he observes) "now prevails over all opposition, and has "advanced to the acquisition of the most universal empire "that was ever established in philosophy. His princi"ples, it must be acknowledged, have a degree of firmness "and solidity that we should in vain look for in any other "system. The most sceptical cannot avoid feeling this. "They not only connect together most perfectly all the "phenomena of the heavens which had been observed "before his time; but those also which the persevering "industry and more perfect instruments of later astron

omers have made known to us, have been either easily "and immediately explained by the application of his "principles, or have been explained in consequence of

"more laborious and accurate calculations from these "principles, than had been instituted before. And even "we, while we have been endeavouring to represent all philosophical systems as mere inventions of the imagi"nation, to connect together the otherwise disjointed and "discordant phenomena of nature, have insensibly been "drawn in to make use of language expressing the connecting principles of this one, as if they were the real "chains which nature makes use of, to bind together her "several operations."

If the view which I have given of Lord Bacon's plan of investigation be just, it will follow, That the Newtonian theory of gravitation can, in no respect whatever, admit of a comparison with those systems which are, in the slightest degree, the offspring of imagination; inasmuch as the principle employed to explain the phenomena is not a hypothesis, but a general fact established by induction; for which fact we have the very same evidence as for the various particulars comprehended under it. The Newtonian theory of gravitation, therefore, and every other theory which rests on a similar basis, is as little liable to be supplanted by the labours of future ages, as the mathematical conclusions of Euclid and Archimedes. The doctrines which it involves may be delivered in different, and perhaps less exceptionable forms; but, till the order of the universe shall be regulated by new physical laws, their substance must for ever remain essentially the same. On the chains, indeed, which nature makes use of to bind together her several operations, Newton has thrown no light whatever; nor was it the aim of his researches to do so. The subjects of his reasonings were not occult connections, but particular phenomena, and general laws ;both of them possessing all the evidence which can belong to facts ascertained by observation and experiment.

From the one or the other of these all his inferences, whether analytical or synthetical, are deduced: Nor is a single hypothesis involved in his data, excepting the authority of that Law of Belief which is tacitly and necessarily assumed in all our physical conclusions,―The stability of the order of nature.

SECTION II.

Continuation of the Subject.-The Induction of Aristotle compared with that of Bacon.

In this section I intend to offer a few slight remarks upon an assertion which has been hazarded with some confidence in various late publications, that the method of investigation, so much extolled by the admirers of Lord Bacon, was not unknown to Aristotle.-It is thus very strongly stated by the ingenious author of a memoir in the Asiatic Researches.*

"From some of the extracts contained in this paper, it "will appear, 1st, That the mode of reasoning by induc“tion, illustrated and improved by the great Lord Verulam "in his Organum Novum, and generally considered as the "cause of the rapid progress of science in later times, was "perfectly known to Aristotle, and was distinctly delin"eated by him, as a method of investigation that leads to "certainty or truth: and 2dly, That Aristotle was like"wise perfectly acquainted, not merely with the form of "induction, but with the proper materials to be employed "in carrying it on-facts and experiments. We are "therefore led to conclude, that all the blame of confining "the human mind for so long a time in chains, by the "force of syllogism, cannot be fairly imputed to Aristo

* Asiatic Researches, Vol. VIII. p. 89, 90. London edition.