The Only Real Life Is

To Understand A Science It Is Necessary To Know Its History.

Ideas Govern The World, Or Throw It Into Chaos.

The Universe Displays No Proof Of An All-directing Mind.

All Good Intellects Have Repeated, Since Bacon's Time, That There Can Be No Real Knowledge But That Which Is Based On Observed Facts. This Is Incontestable, In Our Present Advanced Stage; But, If We Look Back To The Primitive Stage Of Human Knowledge, We Shall See That It Must Have Been Otherwise Then. If It Is True That Every Theory Must Be Based Upon Observed Facts; It Is Equally True That Facts Can Not Be Observed Without The Guidance Of Some Theory. Without Such Guidance, Our Facts Would Be Desultory And Fruitless; We Could Not Retain Them: For The Most Part We Could Not Even Perceive Them.

Every Attempt To Employ Mathematical Methods In The Study Of Chemical Questions Must Be Considered Profoundly Irrational And Contrary To The Spirit Of Chemistry.... If Mathematical Analysis Should Ever Hold A Prominent Place In Chemistry -- An Aberration Which Is Happily Almost Impossible -- It Would Occasion A Rapid And Widespread Degeneration Of That Science.