THE PANORAMA OF SCIENCE: OP, A GUIDE TO KNOWLEDGE. BY GEORGE GRANT. DUBLIN: PUBLISHED BY JAMES M'GLASHAN, 21, D'OLIER STREET. MDCCCXLIX. PREFACE. THE desire of obtaining knowledge is one of the most natural, and, at the same time, most ennobling attributes of the human mind, for it is impossible, whatever may be our station in life, to walk through the world without noticing facts of the highest interest, which cannot be duly appreciated unless properly understood. The Panorama of Seience is intended, like a guide-book to strangers, to lead our readers through the most agreeable paths to knowledge, and explain in the most simple manner the Principles of Science. No scholastic difficulties will be allowed to impede our progress; for there is now no necessity to affect, like the priests of old, an air of mystery in elucidating the artless means which nature takes to accomplish many of her most important and beautiful operations: indeed, truth disdains all artifices; she does not love to appear masqueraded in the costume of quaint and hyperbolical devices; her ways are ways of the utmost simplicity, and may be readily understood by every individual desirous of acquir ing information. This information we will now lay before the reader, excluding, or explaining, all scientific terms; and it is hoped that this will appear a "Panorama" more than in name. Liverpool, May, 1849. G. G. |