PREFACE.
The progress of modern science, especially within the last five years, has been remarkable for a tendency to simplify the laws of nature, and to unite detached branches by general principles. In some cases identity has been proved where there appeared to be nothing in common, as in the electric and magnetic influences; in others, as that of light and heat, such analogies have been pointed out as to justify the expectation, that they will ultimately be referred to the same agent: and in all there exists such a bond of union, that proficiency cannot be attained in any one without a knowledge of others.
Although well aware that a far more extensive illustration of these views might have been given, the author hopes that enough has been done to show the connexion of the physical sciences.
