A lecture on the importance of a knowledge of physical science to the members of all professions, being introductory to a course of lectures on the application of acoustics to the discovery of chest diseases, delivered to the members of the medical profession, and of the Philosophical Institution, at Birmingham / by Peyton Blakiston.

  • Blakiston, Peyton, 1801-1878.
Date:
[cbetween 1800 and 1899?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A lecture on the importance of a knowledge of physical science to the members of all professions, being introductory to a course of lectures on the application of acoustics to the discovery of chest diseases, delivered to the members of the medical profession, and of the Philosophical Institution, at Birmingham / by Peyton Blakiston. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    3] tion consists in seeing phenomena only inasmuch as they resemble this image. The human mind is only capable of containing one image at a time ; but this image may be simple or complex. It is by their faculty of finding in various phenomena some common circumstance, that the French are able to consider them simultaneously, though necessarily partially or by abstraction. A grouping of these various phenomena is thus effected, but from the one-sidedness of the view upon wliich it is made, an abstract or imperfect one. The French are remarkable for retaining the same idea long in their minds, and by finding its represen- tation in a vast number of phenomena, discovering such an abstract connexion between them. But they pretend to more than this, and by the aid of the abstract connexion of phenomena, they assert their power of giving concrete or practical directions, and even undertake their reahsation. It is the necessary one-sidedness of the special views thus deduced from their general principles which leads to their uniform failure. No nation has such positive inaptitude for con- struction, of whatever nature, as the French, because no other nation conceives it practicable upon a one- sided view of facts. But I will show you that far from being an evil, as one might at first sight be disposed to consider it, this circumstance is the very foundation of the greatness of France, and of the eminent services she is destined to render to Humanity. Questions must be raised before they are solved, and it is the function of France in the economy of Europe,