MEDITATION III.

GASTRONOMY.

ORIGIN OF SCIENCES.

THE sciences are not like Minerva who started ready armed from the
brain of Jupiter. They are children of time and are formed
insensibly by the collection of the methods pointed out by
experience, and at a later day by the principles deduced from the
combination of these methods.

Thus old men, the prudence of whom caused them to be called to the
bed-side of invalids, whose compassion taught to cure wounds, were
the first physicians.

The shepherds of Egypt, who observed that certain stars after the
lapse of a certain period of time met in the heavens, were the
first astronomers.

The person who first uttered in simple language the truth, 2 + 2 =
4 created mathematics, that mighty science which really placed man
on the throne of the universe.

In the course of the last sixty years, many new sciences have
taken their place in the category of our knowledge, among which is
stereotomy, descriptive geometry, and the chemistry of gas.

All sciences cultivated for a long time must advance, especially
as the art of printing makes retrogression impossible. Who knows,