THE MONTHLY ANTHOLOGY. SEPTEMBER, 1804. FOR THE ANTHOLOGY. THE STUDENT OF NATURAL PHILOSOPHY.....No. I. Mr. Editor, nence in the knowledge of those general laws, by which the Creator governs the natural world. "It is fuppofed, that the fall of an Boston, Sept. 14, 1804. apple to the ground directed Newton to the investigation and discovery of the law of gravita HAVING long had a defire tion; and that the found of a to gain fome fmall acquaintance with natural philofophy, and having hitherto enjoyed few advantages for this purpofe, I refolve to devote one evening of every week, ordinarily, through the enfuing feafon, to this pleafing and useful study. It is my with to use your publication as the depofitory of fuch reflexions and experiments, as I may occafionally make. They will be extremely fimple, and perhaps hardly worth your notice. If however they fhall not be abfolutely defpicable, I will thank you to infert them, as they will ferve as a fort of journal of my progrefs, and may flimulate me to perfevere in my refolution. Poflibly alfo a record of this kind may excite a philofophical tafte in fome young perfons, among your readers, who, from this circumftance, may hereafter rife to a refpectable emi fmith's hammer gave to Pythagoras the first hint of his theory of musick." If you fhall look for much order in my ftudies, you will be difappointed. I have many avocations, few books and fewer inftruments, am fometimes ruled rather by caprice than system, and often overcome by laffitude and indolence. Here are fufficient reafons, why I fhould not be very methodical in my new purfuit. I will however I will however engage, life and health being prolonged, to make you a weekly report of fome fort or other; and if cares or pleafures fhould forbid me to ftudy, and thus prevent me from furnishing you with an account of my own obfervations, I will at leaft fend you the obfervations of others. Interfperfed in the pages of old newspapers I frequently find recorded philo fophical experiments, which deferve a lefs precarious existence, than what they there fuffer. Some of thefe I fhall henceforth rescue and preferve for you. For although many of your fubfcribers may value the Anthology as a colledion of flowers, I, as a philofopher, fhould rather be pleafed with it, as a collection of facts. Since this is the first evening of my philofophical career, you cannot fuppofe that, after writing this introduction, and I think an introduction is the most difficult of any thing to write, I have any account to give you of my studies. My apparatus is yet in diforder. My books are not collected. I have not even determined with what author to commence, nor what part of the immeasurable field before me I will begin to explore. Accordingly I fend you a piece of aftronomical intelligence, which you must have seen in fundry of our late periodical publications, but which nevertheless I beg you to preferve. NEW PLANETS. H. C. S. Two new planets have lately been discovered, one by Mr. Piazzi, at Palermo in 1801, which is called after the difcoverer's name, "Piazzi;" the other by Dr. Olbers at Bremen, in 1802, which is called "Pallas."-Dr. Herfchel has difcovered that the real diameter of Piazzi is 162 miles, and that of Pallas 95 miles; of courfe they must be very fmall indeed, when compared with the other planets; he confiders them of a different fpecies from the known planets; in their fmallness and motion they refemble comets; but in clearness of light they resemble other planets; he fuppofes that many more fuch will hereafter be discovered, and places them under the title of Afteriors. Thefe two new planets are vifible only by glasses, and at certain feafons, hence a writer hazards a conjecture that they are planets belonging to, and revolv ing round the centre of fome adjacent fyftem, periodically becoming visible to the planets comprifing ours. Sept. 21. The week has revolved, Mr. Editor, and I am still unprepared for any recondite researches, and of course unable to furnish you with any original communications on philofophy. Towards executing my purpose, I find it neceffary that my ftudy fhould be fitted up in a new ftyle; my book fhelves must be removed to give place to fhelves of a different fize; and where pamphlets and manufcripts have formerly refted, I must now difpofe my tubs, pumps, and retorts. I have not forgotten my engagement. I fend you an extract from the laft Port Folio which I received (Vol. IV. No. 36. p. 282), a publication, fo interesting for its papers of taste and elegant criticism, that, after reading it, I am fometimes tempted to aban don my purpose refpecting the ex ternal fciences. The extract be fore you, it feems, is a translation from the French, and contains advice to a journalist on the fubject of philofophy. But H. C. S. PHILOSOPHY. You poffefs a competent knowledge of geometry and phyficks, to give an exact account of books of this kind; and you have enough of understanding and taste to speak of them with that art, which ftrips them of their thorns, without loading them with unbecoming flowers. I would particularly advife you, when you fhall make philofophical extracts, firit to prefent to the reader a kind of hiftorical abridgment of the opinions fuggefted, or of the truths cftablifhed. For example, is the question of the vacuum under difcuffion? Mention briefly the manner in which Epicurus thought he had proved it; flew how Gaffendi rendered it more probable; expofe to view the infinite degrees of probability, which Newton has added to this opinion, by his arguments, by his obfervations, and by his calculations. Is a work on the nature of air under confideration? It is proper, in the first place, to fhew that Ariftotle and all the philofophers knew that it had weight, but were ignorant of the degree of that weight. A great number of ignorant perfons, who are defirous of knowing at least the hiftory of the fciences, men of the world, young ftudents, will learn, with avidity, with what force of reason, and by what experiments the great Galileo combated the first errour of Ariftotle on the fubject of air; with what art Torecelli weighed it, as we afcertain the weight of any thing in a balance; by what means its elafticity was discovered; and, finally, how the admirable experiments of Hale and Boerhaave have difcovered effects of air, which we are almost forced to attribute to properties of matter, unknown until our day. Does a book, filled with calculations and problems, on the subject of light, make its appearance? How much pleafure will you afford to the publick, by exhibiting the feeble ideas entertained by eloquent and ignorant Greece on the subject of refraction; the opinion of the Arab Alhazen, the only geometrician of his time, refpecting it; the conjectures of Antonio de Dominis; the fyftem of Descartes, of which he made an ingenious and geometrical, but falfe application; the difcoveries of Grimaldi, whofe life was but too fhort; finally, the truths established by Newton; truths the most bold and luminous, to which the human mind is capable of attaining; truths, which open a new world to our view, but which ftill leave a cloud behind them! Shall a work be compofed on the gravitation of the celeftial bodies, that admirable part of the demonftrations of Newton? Will you not gratify your readers, if you give the hiftory of this gravitation, from Copernicus, who had but a glimpse of it, from Keller, who was bold enough to announce it as if by instinct, to Newton, who has demonstrated to the aftonished world, that it preffes upon the fun, and the fun upon it? Attribute to Defcartes and to Hariot the art of applying algebra to the menfuration of cube, integral, and differential calcula |