Elements of Natural Philosophy

NATURAL Philosophy, which is the good old English name for what is now called Physical Science, has been long taught in two very different ways. One method is to begin by giving the student a thorough training in pure mathematics, so that when dynamical relations are afterwards presented to him in the form of mathematical equations, he at once appreciates the language, if not the ideas, of the new subject. The progress of science, according to this method, consists in bringing the different branches of science in succession under the power of the calculus. When this has been done for any particular science, it becomes in the estimation of the mathematician like an Alpine peak which has been scaled, retaining little to reward original explorers, though perhaps still of some use, as furnishing occupation to professional guides.Elements of Natural Philosophy.By Professors Sir W. Thomson P. G. Tait. Clarendon Press Series. (Macmillan and Co., 1873.)