The history of science teaches us the difficulties that have opposed the
progress of this active spirit of inquiry. Inaccurate and imperfect
observations have led, by false inductions, to the great number of physical
views that have been perpetuated as popular prejudices among all classes of
society. Thus by the side of a solid and scientific knowledge of natural
phenomena there has been preserved a system of the pretended
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results of observation, which is so much the more difficult to shake, as it
denies the validity of the facts by which it may be refuted. This
empiricism, the melancholy heritage transmitted to us from former times,
invariably contends for the truth of its axioms with the arrogance of a
narrow-minded spirit. Physical philosophy, on the other hand, when based
upon science, doubts because it seeks to investigate, distinguishes between
that which is certain and that which is merely probable, and strives
incessantly to perfect theory by extending the circle of observation.
This assemblage of imperfect dogmas, bequeathed by one age to another --
this physical philosophy, which is composed of popular prejudices -- is not
only injurious because it perpetuates error with the obstinacy engendered by
the evidence of ill-observed facts, but also because it hinders the mind
from attaining to higher views of nature.
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