l and chemical
Phenomena.--Tides and Currents.--Clouds.--Decomposition of Water._

_Discoveries respecting other material Substances.--Progress of
Chemistry._

_Discoveries respecting Electricity. Magnetism, Light, Heat._

_Mechanical Philosophy and Inventions.--Physical Instruments.--The
Result illustrated by the Cotton Manufacture.--Steam-engine.--Bleaching.
--Canals.--Railways.--Improvements in the Construction of
Machinery.--Social Changes produced.--Its Effect on intellectual
Activity._

_The scientific Contributions of various Nations, and especially of
Italy._

The Age of Reason in Europe presents all the peculiarities of the Age of
Reason in Greece. There are modern representatives of King Ptolemy
Philadelphus among his furnaces and crucibles; of Hipparchus cataloguing
the stars; of Aristyllus and Timochares, with their stone quadrants and
armils, ascertaining the planetary motions; of Eratosthenes measuring
the size of the earth; of Herophilus dissecting the human body; of
Archimedes settling the laws of mechanics and hydrostatics; of Manetho
collating the annals of the old dynasties of Egypt; of Euclid and
Apollonius improving mathematics. [Sidenote: Analogies between the Age
of Reason in Europe and in Greece.] There are botanical gardens and
zoological menageries like those of Alexandria, and expeditions to the
sources of the Nile. The direction of thought is the same; but the
progress is on a greater scale, and illustrated by more imposing
results. The exploring voyages to Madagascar are replaced by
circumnavigations of the world; the revolving steam-engine of Hero by
the double-acting engine of Watt; the great galley of Ptolemy, with its
many banks of rowers, by the ocean steam-ship; the solitary watch-fire
on the Pharos by a thousand light-houses, with their fixed and revolving
lights; the courier on his Arab horse by the locomotive and electric
telegraph; the scriptorium in the Serapion, with its shelves of papyrus,
by countless printing-presses; the "Almagest" of Ptolemy by the
"Principia" of Newton; and the Museum itself by English, French,
Italian, German, Dutch, and Russian philosophical societies,
universities, colleges, and other institutions of learning.

[Sidenote: European progress in the acquisition of knowledge.] So grand
is the scale on which this cultivation of science has been resumed, so
many are those engaged in it, so rapid is the advance, and so great are
the material advantage