Cursory remarks on some parts of a work, entitled Studies of nature ; originally written by M. de Saint Pierre, and translated into English by ... Henry Hunter / [William Cole].

  • Cole, William, active 1807.
Date:
1807
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Cursory remarks on some parts of a work, entitled Studies of nature ; originally written by M. de Saint Pierre, and translated into English by ... Henry Hunter / [William Cole]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    European nations will be converted into a bles¬ sing. Having followed our author thus far, we shall accompany him, for a few steps, into the vegeta¬ ble kingdom ; where, after attending to a descrip' lion of various productions, we find him draw¬ ing this conclusion : “ I should never have done,’ says he, [Page 240, Vol. L] “were I to run “ over ever so hastily, the different sports of ve- “ getables ; w hat I have said is evidence sufficient, “ that there is not a single one whose direction is “determined by the vertical column of air. This “error has gained currency from its being taken “ for granted, that plants affected the greatest vo- “lumeofair; and this error in physics hasproduc- “ edanother in geometry; for, on this supposition, “they must all precipitate themselves to the ho- “rizon, because there the column of air is more “considerable than in the zenith. We must in “like manner reject the consequences which have “ been deduced from it, and laid down as a prin¬ ciple of jurisprudence for the division of lands, “in our boasted mathematical treatises; such as “the following. That no more wood, or corn, or “grass, can groxv on the declivities of a moan- “ tain, than what would grow on the area of its