Chapter 5

HELPS AND OPPORTUNITIES—SCIENTIFIC PURSUITS. No great result achieved by accident—Newton’s 118–153 discoveries—Dr. Young—Habit of observing with intelligence—Galileo—Inventions of Brown, Watt, and Brunel, accidentally suggested—Philosophy in little things—Apollonius Pergæus and conic sections—Franklin and Galvani—Discovery of steam power—Opportunities seized or made—Simple and rude tools of great workers—Lee and Stone’s opportunities for learning—Sir Walter Scott’s—Dr. Priestly—Sir Humphry Davy—Faraday—Davy and Coleridge—Cuvier—Dalton’s industry—Examples of improvement of time—Daguesseau and Bentham—Melancthon and Baxter—Writing down observations—Great note-makers—Dr. Pye Smith—John Hunter: his patient study of little things—His great labours—Ambrose Paré the French surgeon—Harvey—Jenner—Sir Charles Bell—Dr. Marshall Hall—Sir William Herschel—William Smith the geologist: his discoveries, his geological map—Hugh Miller: his observant faculties—John Brown and Robert Dick, geologists—Sir Roderick Murchison, his industry and attainments