Note 775 — Chapter V · (continued 2)

‘The easiest mode of conceiving the subject, is to consider the heat that permeates all bodies, and unites with them in various proportions, as merely the subtle fluid of light in a state of combination. When forcibly discharged, or suddenly elicited from any substance, it again resumes its radiant splendour.’ … ‘The same notion was embraced by the poets, and gives sublimity to their finest odes.’ … ‘Those poetical images which have descended to our own times, were hence founded on a close observation of nature. Modern philosophy need not disdain to adopt them, and has only to expand and reduce to precision the original conceptions.’ Leslie's Treatises on Philosophy, pp. 308, 309. Again, at p. 416: ‘This is not the first occasion in which we have to admire, through the veil of poetical imagery, the sagacity and penetration of those early sages. It would be weakness to expect nice conclusions in the infancy of science; but it is arrogant presumption to regard all the efforts of unaided genius with disdain.’