and necessarily spring from them, and must be considered as their causes, while the others are the results, produce, or effects of the former. It is necessary to enquire into causes, in order to obtain points of support, and to deduce effects. This law, of general application, is the true law of generation of the sciences, or of creation, which puts us into a track that leads to discoveries. It ought to be taken for a guide in all the sciences in which the investigation of causes, and the accurate observation of the effects resulting from them, are the necessary principle of their improvement and progress.

The enquiry into, and the knowledge of, causes, furnish man with the true means of extending his empire over nature.

Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas!

No science can advance without a more precise observation of the facts belonging to it, whence results the facility of ascending to the generating causes of those facts, and of producing a repetition of the facts observed, or new phænomena of the same nature.

Science properly directed, therefore, is really and solely a search after causes tending to some end Every science may be defined in a general

way :-a collection of observations of phænomena and facts, and comparisons of the identities or differences remarked between them, which tend to lead us to as positive a determination as possible of certain causes and certain effects.*

Agriculture observes the causes which render the earth more fertile, the crops more abundant, the trees more productive. From this observation spring the arts-1, of tilling the ground with different kinds of animals and implements: 2, of dunging and manuring the soil after it has been broken up, and varying the species of the manures and crops: 3, of sowing, planting, engrafting, and pruning trees: 4, of watering plants and gardens, and irrigating meadows and pastures: 5, lastly, all the processes which render the earth more profuse of its favors to man.

Astronomy studies the causes of the motions of the stars, of eclipses, and of the tides, and the causes of the succession of the seasons; and in this point of view it presides with meteorology over the labors of the husbandman. It observes the revolutions of the celestial bodies, their constant or variable progress, the mutual dependence which connects

*Nature," says Bacon, "cannot otherwise be commanded but by obeying her laws."

the one with the other, and the laws of their ascension and direction. A better knowledge of these causes dispels the frequently mischievous prejudices which spring from ignorance. The science of astronomy, thus founded on a more correct knowledge of the causes connected with its researches, conducts the navigator and merchant with surer guides into distant and unknown oceans. It promotes manufactures and the exchange of their productions, which causes new productions,* and the intercourse between the inhabitants of the different regions of the globe.

Mechanics and dynamics seek the causes and the laws either of the solidity of bodies set in equilibrium and in harmony,† or those of motion and its communication, and of the power which attracts bodies to one another. Architecture, by the application of these same laws, renders them subservient to the construction and arrangement of our buildings, and descends from the examination of the causes which the two other sciences have indicated, to the practice and improvement of the means of erecting for us more solid, convenient, and agreeable habitations.

* See the sixth law, that of Exchanges.

+ See the seventh law, of Equilibrium, or a due Medium.

Physics, general and particular, and chemistry, which devotes its especial attention to the elementary particles of bodies, study, with different views, the causes and principles of the reciprocal action either of bodies in the aggregate or of their particles considered separately,* and lastly those of their different properties, general or individual.

Natural history considers from a single point of view all the natural bodies, and the general result of all their actions in the grand whole of na. ture. It investigates the causes capable of altering their species, and producing varieties in them.

Medicine seeks the causes of diseases, for the purpose of preventing them, or that, from a more intimate acquaintance with their nature, it may be able to administer remedies for their removal.

Logic, morality, legislation, politics, and rhetoric, search for the hidden springs that produce in the human heart all the movements and all the impressions of which it is susceptible; that from a thorough knowledge of these moving causes of our feelings, passions, and actions, they may operate upon it with the more powerful effect.+

* See the fifth and eighth laws of Division and Re-union, and Action and Re-action.

† All the secondary or accessary causes which we observe in

In the physical, moral and intellectual, social and political world, and in all the sciences, causes duly studied and appreciated are means of advancement and creation, or of the extension of the power of man. Means, says Bacon, being in practice what causes are in theory, so long as we are ignorant of the causes, we are destitute of means, and can produce no effects.

Our law of causes, or of generation, is therefore an absolute generality, highly useful in its applications, and prolific in consequences. It is connected with most of the laws which we are about

the world convince us of the necessity of a first and all-powerful cause, which conscience and reason seem to reveal to man by a secret and irresistible testimony. This first and universal cause, termed Providence or God, is manifested in all its works. Into the thinking atom which it has placed on this earth it has infused an emanation of itself, an immortal soul, the existence of which is attested by the boldness of our conceptions, the loftiness of our sentiments, the energy of our passions, and the very insatiability of our desires. All nature, in the magnificent and diversified scenery which she every where exhibits to our view, and in the alternate succession of day and night, of the seasons and of years, confirms to us, by public and solemn evidence, these consolatory truths, which all religions proclaim and too frequently distort. The phænomena of the earth and heavens are demonstrations of God and immortality: a sincere and persevering study of nature necessarily leads to the Author of nature.