THE

POETRY OF SCIENCE,

OR

STUDIES OF THE

PHYSICAL PHENOMENA OF NATURE.

،

BY

ROBERT HUNT,

AUTHOR OF PANTHEA,' RESEARCHES ON LIGHT,' ETC.,

Keeper of Mining Records, Museum of Practical Geology.

How charming is Divine Philosophy!

Not harsh and crabbed as dull fools suppose,

But musical as is Apollo's lute,

And a perpetual feast of nectar'd sweets,

Where no crude surfeit reigns.

MILTON.

SECOND EDITION.

LONDON:

REEVE, BENHAM, AND REEVE,

KING WILLIAM STREET, STRAND.

From Shakespeare to Plato-from the philosophic poet to the poetic philosopher-the transition is easy, and the road is crowded with illustrations of our present subject.

Hast thou ever raised thy mind to the consideration of EXISTENCE, in and by itself, as the mere act of existing?

Hast thou ever said to thyself thoughtfully IT IS! heedless, in that moment, whether it were a man before thee, or a flower, or a grain of sand ;-without reference, in short, to this or that particular mode or form of existence? If thou hast, indeed, attained to this, thou wilt have felt the presence of a mystery, which must have fixed thy spirit in awe and wonder.

COLERIDGE.

AOKK

ENOX LIBRARY

NEW YORK

PRE FACE.

A Second Edition of this work being demanded within a twelvemonth of the publication of the first, convinces the author that he has not erred in believing it possible to interest a numerous class of readers by a popular examination of the deductions of philosophy and the truths of inductive science; -that he was not mistaken in believing the generalizations from mechanical experiments to be capable of assuming a poetic aspect.

Desiring to present every discovery of Science with correctness, increased attention has been paid to the present edition; and it has been cleared of some trifling inaccuracies,—regretted by no one more than the author,-which had crept into the first.

To several friends of eminence in their respective branches of chemistry, geology, and natural history, the author has to express his warmest thanks. To them is due the emendation of all that was obscure; and the aid they have afforded in the revision of those passages which relate to their own familiar studies must give to this Edition an essential value.

To keep pace with the progress of science, each new discovery, connecting itself with the physical laws of nature, has been included ;—although not numerous, they are important.

It is, therefore, hoped that the author's attempt to render the "POETRY OF SCIENCE" a correct text-book, at the same time that he has striven to divest science of its harder features, will not have been unsuccessful.

MOY WON

November, 1849.

R. H.