On the Antiquity of the Chemical Art by James Mactear
page 35 of 53 (66%)
page 35 of 53 (66%)
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century B.C.
Sir William Jones, in a paper on the philosophy of the Asiatics, pointed out that âthe old philosophers of Europe had some idea of centripetal force, and a principle of universal gravitation,â and affirms that âmuch of the theology and philosophy of our immortal Newton may be found in the Vedas.â âThat _most subtle spirit_ which he suspected to pervade natural bodies, and lying concealed in them, to cause attraction and repulsion, the emission, reflection and refraction of light, electricity, calefaction, sensation, and muscular motion, is described by the Hindus as a _fifth element_, endowed with these very powers; and the Vedas abound with allusions to a force universally attractive, which they chiefly ascribe to the sun, thence called âAditya, or the attractor,â a name designed by the mythologists to mean the child of the goddess Aditi. But the most wonderful passage on the theory of attractions occurs in the charming allegorical poem of âShiâriân and Ferhaiâd, or the Divine Spirit, and a human soul disinterestedly pious,â a work which, from the first verse to the last, is a blaze of religious and poetical fire. âThe whole passage appears to me so curious that I make no apology for giving you a faithful translation of it:-- â_There is a strong propensity which dances through every atom, and attracts the minutest particle to some peculiar object; search this universe from its base to its summit, from fire to air, from water to earth (the four elements!), from all below the moon to all above the celestial spheres, and thou wilt not find a corpuscle destitute of that natural attractability. The very point of the first thread in this |
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