Elements of the philosophy of the human mind. By Dugald Stewart. Rev. and abridged, with critical and explanatory notes, for the use of colleges and schools. By Francis Bowen ...

252 THE INFLUENCE OF CASUAL ASSOCIATIONS.
single proposition in chemistry can for a moment stand. But
whether all these are really simple substances, or compounds
not yet resolved into their elements, is what the authors themselves cannot possibly assert; nor would it in the least diminish
the merit of their observations, if future experiment should prove
them to have been mistaken as to the simplicity of these substances. This remark should not be confined to late discoveries;
it may as justly be applied to those earths and metals with which
we have been long acquainted." —" In the dark ages of chemistry, the object was to rival nature; and the substance which the
adepts of those days were busied to create, was universally
allowed to be simple. In a more enlightened period, we have
extended our inquiries, and multiplied the number of the elements. The last task will be to simplify; and, by a closer
observation of nature, to learn from what small store of primlitive materials, all that we behold and wonder at was created."
Chenevix' JIquiries concerning Palladium.
The analogy between the history of Chemistry and that of
the Philosophy of the Human Mlind, which has often struck me
in contrasting the views of the alchemist with those of Lavoisier
and his followers, has acquired much additional value and irmportance in my estimation, since I had the pleasure to peruse a
late work of M. de Gerando; in which I find, that the same
analogy has presented itself to that most judicious philosopher,
and has been applied by him to the same practical purpose, of
exposing the false pretensions and premature generalizations of
some modern metaphysicians.
"It required nothing less than the united splendor of the cdiscoveries brought to light by the new chemical school, to tear the
minds of men from the pursuit of a simple and primary element;
a pursuit renewed in every age with an indefatigable perseverance, and always renewed in vain. With what feelings of contempt would the physiologists of former times have looked down
on the chemists of the present age, whose limited and circumscribed system admits nearly forty different principles in the
composition of bodies! What a subject of ridicule would the
new nomenclature have afforded to an alchemist!"