Lectures on select subjects in mechanics, hydrostatics, pneumatics, and optics. With the use of the globes, the art of dialing, and the calculation of the mean times of new and full moons and eclipses / By James Ferguson.

  • Ferguson, James, 1710-1776.
Date:
1760
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Lectures on select subjects in mechanics, hydrostatics, pneumatics, and optics. With the use of the globes, the art of dialing, and the calculation of the mean times of new and full moons and eclipses / By James Ferguson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    7/486
    P R E F A C TTVER ftnce the days of the Lord Chan- .jTLs cell or Bacon, natural philofophy hath been more and more cultivated in England, That great genius firjl Jet out with taking a general furvey of all the natural fciences^ dividing them into difiinB branches^ which he enumerated with great exaBnefs ; he-enquired fcrupuloufy into the degree of knowledge already attained to in each^ and drew up a lif of what fill remained to he difcovered: this was the fcope of his firft undertaking. Afterward he carried his views much farther^ and Jhewed the necejfity of an experimental philofophy^ a thing never before thought of. As he was a profejfed enemy to fyflems^ he con^ fidered philofophy no other wife than as that part of knowledge which contributes to make men better and happier: he feems to limit it to the knowledge of things ufeful^ recommending above all the ftudy of na- ture, andJhewing that no progrefs can be made there^- in^ but by colleBing faEis^ and comparing experiments^ of which he points out a great number proper to be made. But notwithftanding the true^ path to fcience was thus exaEtly marked out^ the old notions of the fchools fo firongly poffeffed Peoples's minds at that time, as not to be eradicated by any new opinions, how rationally foever advanced, until the illnftrious Mr, Boyle, the firft who purfued Lord Bacon’j plan, began to put experiments in praEiice with an ajjiduity equal to his great talents. Next, the Royal Society being