Note (return) — Chapter XI
Reading edition
Whatever physical truths were within the author's reach, took their place in the general array: the vacancies were filled up with the best suppositions admitted by the limited science of the time. 651 And it is worthy of remark that, whilst proceeding by this "high à priori road," he made some startling guesses at the truth, and anticipated some of the discoveries of the modern inductive method, which proceeds simply by the observation, comparison, and generalization of facts. Of these prophetic anticipations we may instance that of the definite proportions of chemistry, 652 the geometrical forms of crystallography, 653 the doctrine of complementary colors, 654 and that grand principle that all the highest laws of nature assume the form of a precise quantitative statement. 655