PHYSICAL AND MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES.

PART I.

THE PROGRESS OF PHYSICAL AND MATHEMATICALSCIENCE AMONG THE ANCIENTS.

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The first period of scientific history which we herepropose to examine is one of the highest interest inevery point of view. It is in a great part associatedwith the records of those distinguished nations whoselanguage, history, and institutions occupy so large ashare of our earliest studies: it leads us to the contem-plation of those primary rudiments of scientific truthwhich have afforded the basis on which the whole mo-dern superstructure has been reared ; whilst the mannerin which those speculations were carried on, and theerrors and extravagancies with which they were oftenmixed up, will supply us with many useful cautions asto the only safe way of pursuing philosophical truth.

We shall find this period naturally and convenientlysubdivide itself into three portions: the first reachingfrom the earliest records to the foundation of the schoolof Alexandria, about b. c. 300 ; the second continuingthence to the decline of that school ; the third em -bracing the state of science in the age of the Romanempire down to the period of its dissolution.

SECTION I.

THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE FROM THE EARLIEST RECORDS TO THEFOUNDATION OF THE SCHOOL OF ALEXANDRIA, B. C. 300.

Origin of Science.

In attempting to trace the vestiges of early science, wefind ourselves involved in no small degree of confusionand uncertainty, among conflicting claims and fictitiousb 3