Scientific Studies; or, Practical, in Contrast with Chimerical Pursuits
By Henry Dircks
()
About this ebook
Read more from Henry Dircks
Scientific Studies; or, Practical, in Contrast with Chimerical Pursuits Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to Scientific Studies; or, Practical, in Contrast with Chimerical Pursuits
Related ebooks
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 02, No. 10, August, 1858 A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSir Thomas Urquhart of Cromartie, Knight Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBlackwoods Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 59, No. 366, April, 1846 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBlackwoods Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 59, No. 366, April, 1846 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHarold : the Last of the Saxon Kings — Complete Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCharles II Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5History of King Charles the Second of England Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Socialist Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWilliam Shakespeare: His Homes and Haunts Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland (1753) Volume I. Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Short History of England Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMemoirs of the Jacobites of 1715 and 1745 Volume III. Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Swampers Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHarold : the Last of the Saxon Kings — Complete Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Short History of England Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWilliam Shakespeare His Homes and Haunts Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe History of England: From the Roman Period to the World War I Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Wars of Alexander's Successors, 323–281 BC Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Life and Times of John Wilkins: Warden of Wadham College, Oxford; Master of Trinity College, Cambridge; and Bishop of Chester Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCommercial Politics (1837-1856) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMemoirs of Life and Literature Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Three Musketeers Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Short History of England: From the Roman Times to the World War I Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Last of the Barons — Volume 01 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMildred Arkell: “Were our duty always pleasant to us, where would be the merit in fulfilling it?” Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHarold: the Last of the Saxon Kings Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe First Kingdom: Britain in the age of Arthur Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Talisman: “Oh, what a tangled web we weave...when first we practice to deceive.” Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pickle the Spy: or, The Incognito of Prince Charles Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Science & Mathematics For You
Ultralearning: Master Hard Skills, Outsmart the Competition, and Accelerate Your Career Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5No-Drama Discipline: the bestselling parenting guide to nurturing your child's developing mind Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nikola Tesla: Imagination and the Man That Invented the 20th Century Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Big Book of Hacks: 264 Amazing DIY Tech Projects Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Becoming Cliterate: Why Orgasm Equality Matters--And How to Get It Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Psychology of Totalitarianism Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Systems Thinker: Essential Thinking Skills For Solving Problems, Managing Chaos, Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Memory Craft: Improve Your Memory with the Most Powerful Methods in History Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Fantastic Fungi: How Mushrooms Can Heal, Shift Consciousness, and Save the Planet Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Wisdom of Psychopaths: What Saints, Spies, and Serial Killers Can Teach Us About Success Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Science of Monsters: The Origins of the Creatures We Love to Fear Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Gulag Archipelago: The Authorized Abridgement Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Activate Your Brain: How Understanding Your Brain Can Improve Your Work - and Your Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Free Will Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/52084: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Humanity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Outsmart Your Brain: Why Learning is Hard and How You Can Make It Easy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Crack In Creation: Gene Editing and the Unthinkable Power to Control Evolution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Gulag Archipelago [Volume 1]: An Experiment in Literary Investigation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Suicidal: Why We Kill Ourselves Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Dorito Effect: The Surprising New Truth About Food and Flavor Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bad Science: Quacks, Hacks, and Big Pharma Flacks Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Invisible Rainbow: A History of Electricity and Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Rise of the Fourth Reich: The Secret Societies That Threaten to Take Over America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Scientific Studies; or, Practical, in Contrast with Chimerical Pursuits
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
Scientific Studies; or, Practical, in Contrast with Chimerical Pursuits - Henry Dircks
Henry Dircks
Scientific Studies; or, Practical, in Contrast with Chimerical Pursuits
Published by Good Press, 2022
goodpress@okpublishing.info
EAN 4064066127022
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION.
LECTURE I.
ADDENDUM.
PREFACE.
CHIMERAS OF SCIENCE.
INTRODUCTION.
ASTROLOGY.
ALCHEMY.
SQUARING THE CIRCLE.
DUPLICATION OF THE CUBE.
TRISECTION OF AN ANGLE.
PERPETUUM MOBILE.
EXPLANATIONS OF THE PLATES.
OTHER WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR.
INTRODUCTION.
Table of Contents
It forms a necessary part of popular lectures that they should possess breadth with brevity, and interest without too great profundity. It is possible to see a large extent of country from a lofty tower without being cognizant of every blade of grass, the perfume of blossoms, or the notes of the sweetest songsters of the groves. In like manner the popular lecturer has to present only so much to the eye of the mind as will give the prominent features of his theme, omitting those details over which the scholar, or the true lover of his subject, dwells with the affection of a fond parent over a darling child.
We must look with astonishment at a man of noble birth, who in a period of civil commotion, with a monarch for his friend, and a court at his command, secluded himself during his youth in a stately ancient tower, engaged in abstruse studies and wonderful mechanical operations; and who, late in life, amidst the terrors of civil war was found turning his inventive faculties, like another Archimedes, to the construction of means of defence, and terrible weapons of offence. But it is only those who become immersed in studies, whether of theology, philosophy, or kindred mental pursuits, who can appreciate the growing appetite for what appears to unlettered men as the driest of all dry occupations. The mere pleasure-seeker knows not how much is lost, and how little is gained by sharing the most brilliant gaieties of fashionable life.
Look at the ancient astrologers, whose pursuits were once as pure and noble as those of modern astronomers. Amidst wild theories, superstitious beliefs, empirical systems, and pagan divination, a rupture became inevitable: one side adopted stellary divination or Astrology, the other Astronomy, or the simple and true study of the stars.
Whatever a man's intellectual pursuits may be, he has the advantage over the mere man of fashion of being engaged in employments which the longest life cannot exhaust.
But intellectual pursuits partake either of the negative or the positive; they are useful or useless, and when useless they fritter away and render nugatory the talent that might have been better employed.
The Marquis of Worcester affords an eminent example of genius of a high order, grandly and effectively directed towards the advancement of man's political and social position. His contemporary, Dr. John Dee, the Astrologer, together with his friend Kelly, the Alchemist, may be appropriately distinguished as representing a class chimerically inclined, and hurtful to the well-being of society; while a less eminent and less blameable section of chimerical labourers are those of whom the worst we can say is, that they waste much valuable time, energy, and fortune, through attaching themselves to mathematics, mechanics, and other learned pursuits, only in search of marvellous, instead of useful applications.
All chimeras are built on assumptions, and so far are castles in the air;
in many forms they are simply ridiculous; but when they pretend to the supernatural they are pernicious and often wicked.
In the two lectures now presented for his perusal, the reader will find both these topics illustrated by suitable lives and authentic evidence.
H. D.
London, February, 1869.
I.
Lecture
ON
THE LIFE OF EDWARD SOMERSET,
SECOND
MARQUIS OF WORCESTER.
"He was a man, take him for all in all,
We shall not look upon his like again."
DELIVERED AT
THE LITERARY INSTITUTION, GREENWICH,
16th FEBRUARY, 1864.
LECTURE I.
Table of Contents
The Biographer of Edward, second
Marquis of Worcester
, naturally finds some difficulty in rendering prominent the political position that nobleman enjoyed in the 17th century; or of impressing the minds of his hearers or readers with a just sense of the wonderful genius of the author of the Century of Inventions,
even although the fact be established of that remarkable man being also the true and first inventor of a veritable steam engine.
When we consider the eventful period in which he lived, (from 1601 to 1667,) and his personal character, together with the social, political, and romantic incidents of his life, the career of the Marquis of Worcester cannot fail to interest and instruct us. He was at once the most fortunate and unfortunate of men, living in times of mingled enlightenment, superstition, and civil discord, and finally finding himself cast on the tender mercies of a corrupt Court; the possessor of a high order of mechanical genius, yet proscribed politically and theologically; most loyal, yet falling the victim of puritanism; and closing his life neglected by a Sovereign whose father had been the chief ruin of his patrimony.
Descended from the Plantagenets, Edward Somerset, second
Marquis of Worcester
, is supposed to have been born about, or soon after 1601, the records to establish his natal year being wanting. His father, Henry Somerset, created first Marquis of Worcester by Charles I., was married on the 16th June, 1600, at Blackfriars; Queen Elizabeth, attending in great state, graciously danced at the wedding ball; and the festivities of the occasion were continued for three days.
We