Such an acknowledgement is due
where the actual state and prospective development of phenomena constitute
the sole objects of direct investigation, which does not venture to depart
from the strict rules of induction. But, although the incessant effort to
embrace nature in its universality may remain unsatisfied, the history of
the contemplation of the universe (which
p 81
will be considered in another part of this work) will teach us how, in the
course of ages, mankind has gradually attained to a partial insight into the
relative dependence of phenomena. My duty is to depict the results of our
knowledge in all their bearings with reference to the present. In all that
is subject to motion and change in space, the ultimate aim, the very
expression of physical laws, depend upon 'mean numerical values', which show
us the constant amid change, and the stable amid apparent fluctuations of
phenomena. Thus the progress of modern physical science is especially
characterized by the attainment and the rectification of the mean values of
certain quantities by means of the processes of weighing and measuring; and
it may be said, that the only remaining and widely-diffused hieroglyphic
characters still in our writing -- 'numbers' -- appear to us again, as
powers of the Cosmos, although in a wider sense than that applied to them by
the Italian School.
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