Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from An Introductory Lecture on the History of Chemistry, Delivered in the University of New York, Session 1846-7
The prevalence of that principle, that our own observation must take the precedence of every other species of testimony, was followed by its necessary consequence - the emancipation of the mind. With the single exception of chemical writers, the tone of every philosophi cal book had been a servile dependance on the ancients. So intimately connected are thought and action, that freedom of the one inevitably gives vigour to the other. He who surrenders his mind to the guidance of another may live without apprehension and at his ease, but he lives the life of a slave. He who assumes the position which a free man ought to assume in this world, that he is the creator and therefore the lawful master of his own thoughts, will never fail to make the acts of his life a representation of the liberty of his mind. What was it but this self reliance which gave birth to the great maritime enterprizes, which carried Columbus across the Atlantic Ocean, and De Gama round the Cape of Good Hope. The men of those days could scarcely realize the distance that already separated them from their immediate predecessors - a new geological epoch had transpired - a new man was made - gunpowder had given him an earthly omnipotence, the printing pres an earthly immortality.
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