One spark of genius shoots through
it, and its elements rush together and glitter before us in a single
translucent drop. It would hardly be extravagant to call Science the art
of packing knowledge.
* * * * *
=_John William Draper,[52] 1810-._=
From the "Human Physiology."
=_215._= TRUTHS IN THE ANCIENT PHILOSOPHIES.
It is not my intention to enter on an examination, or even enumeration,
of ancient philosophical opinions, nor to show that many of the
doctrines which have been brought forward within the last three
centuries existed in embryo in those times. It may, however, be observed
that, in the midst of much error, there were those who held just views
of the various problems of theology, law, politics, philosophy, and
particularly of the fundamental doctrines of natural science, the
constitution of the solar system, the geological history of the earth,
the nature of chemical forces, the physiological relations of animals
and plants.
It is supposed by many, whose attention has been casually drawn to the
philosophical opinions of antiquity, that the doctrines which we still
retain as true came to the knowledge of the old philosophers, not so
much by processes of legitimate investigation as by mere guessing or
crude speculation, for which there was an equal chance whether they were
right or wrong; but a closer examination will show that many of them
must have depended on results previously determined or observed by the
Africans or Asiatics, and thus they seem to indicate that the human mind
has undergone in twenty centuries but little change in its manner of
action, and that, commencing with the same data, it always comes to the
same conclusions.
Pages:
406
407
408
409
410
411
412
413
414
415
416
417
418
419
420
421
422
423
424
425
426
427
428
429
430