The exposition of general results has, it must be owned, been singularly
facilitated by the happy revolution experienced since the close of the last
century, in the condition of all the special sciences, more particularly of
geology, chemistry, and descriptive natural history. In proportion as laws
admit of more general application, and as sciences mutually enrich each
other, and by their extension become connected together in more numerous and
more intimate relations, the development of general truths may be given with
conciseness devoid of superficiality. On being first examined, all
phenomena appear to be
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isolated, and it is only by the result of a multiplicity of observations,
combined by reason, that we are able to trace the mutual relations existing
between them. If, however, in the present age, which is so strongly
characterized by a brilliant course of scientific discoveries, we perceive a
want of connection in the phenomena of certain sciences, we may anticipate
the revelation of new facts, whose importance will probably be commensurate
with the attention directed to these branches of study. Expectations of
this nature may be entertained with regard to meteorology, several parts of
optics, and to radiating heat, and electro-magnetism, since the admirable
discoveries of Melloni and Faraday.
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