ABSTRACT
The same faculties are employed in both cases; and in both cases their mode of operation is fundamentally the same. Force and space are measurable : hence Statics. Time, force, and space are measurable : hence Dynamics. The invention of the barometer enabled men to extend the principles of mechanics to the atmosphere; and Aerostatics existed. When a thermometer was devised there arose a science of heat, which was before impossible. Until a thermometric scale was contrived, men’s judgments respecting relative amounts of heat stood on the same footing with their present judgments respecting relative amounts of sound. Some illustrations of this may be fitly introduced, by way of preliminary to a brief sketch of the genesis of science from the point of view indicated. The others are less general; seeing that there are endless phenomena that are not cognizable either by general geometry or rational mechanics.
