Memoirs of the life of David Rittenhouse, LLD. F.R.S., late president of the American Philosophical Society, &c. : $b interspersed with various notices of many distinguished men : with an appendix, containing sundry philosophical and other papers, most of which have not hitherto been publishedBarton, William
History
Memoirs of the life of David Rittenhouse, LLD. F.R.S., late president of the American Philosophical Society, &c. : $b interspersed with various notices of many distinguished men : with an appendix, containing sundry philosophical and other papers, most of which have not hitherto been published
Bacon (the celebrated Viscount of St. Albans and Baron of Verulam)
published his great philosophical work, the _Novum Organum_, in the
year 1620. The learned and sagacious professor Cooper remarks, that
“Lord Bacon” (whom the honourable Mr. Walpole considers as the Prophet
of the Arts, which NEWTON came to reveal,) “was the first among the
moderns, who pointed out the way by which real knowledge was to be
obtained, and turned the minds of the learned from playing tricks with
syllogisms, and the legerdemain of words without ideas; and taught
them to rest theory upon the basis of experiment alone.” See the
Introductory Lecture of Thomas Cooper, Esq. Professor of Chemistry at
Carlisle College, Pennsylvania.
Footnote 338:
The Greek and Latin are called by way of pre-eminence, the learned
languages. Baron Bielfeld enumerates the advantages resulting from a
knowledge of the former; among which he notices that important one, of
its enabling us more readily and clearly to comprehend the meaning of
that almost boundless list of terms in the arts and sciences, used in
modern languages and styled technical, which are either altogether
Grecian, or derived from that language. He then makes this remark:
“From all that has been said, it is apparent how much utility attends
the study of the Greek tongue; and how much reason the English have,
for applying themselves to it, from their early youth.” “But,”
observes this learned and discriminating writer, “that which has given
the Latin an advantage over the Greek itself, that has rendered it
indispensable to every man of letters, and has made it the basis of
erudition, is, that during the middle age, and in general in all
modern times, the learned of all Europe have made it their common and
universal language; so that the Latin forms, if we may use the
expression, the natural language of the sciences.” _Elem. of Univ.
Erud._
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