Preliminary Discourse on the Study of Natural Philosophy (Classic Reprint)

Book excerpt: Excerpt from Preliminary Discourse on the Study of Natural Philosophy The pleasures of fancyand imagination, and social con. Verse, man is constituted a speculative being; be con templates the world, and the objects around him, not with a passive, indifferent gaze, as a set of pheno mena in which he has no further interest than as they affect his immediate situation, and can be ren dered subservient to his comfort, but as a system disposed with order and design. He approves and feels the highest admiration for the harmony of its parts, the skill and efiiciency of its contrivances. Some of these which he can best trace and under. Stand he attempts to imitate, and finds that to a certain extent, though rudely and imperfectly, he can succeed, in others, that although he an com prehend the nature of the contrivance, he is totally destitute of all means of imitation; - while in others, again, and those evidently the most important, though he sees the effect produced, yet the means by which it is done are alike beyond his kn. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.