Fragments of Science for Unscientific People: A Series of Detached Essays, Lectures and Reviews |
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absorbed absorption Acetic ether action angle aqueous vapor atmosphere atoms attraction blue body called carbonic acid cause chemical chemical affinity cleavage cloud color crystal dark rays diamagnetic direction disease distance earth effect electric current emitted energy experiment experimental tube fact Faraday flame flask floating matter force gases germs glass gravity hydrogen imagination intellectual invisible rays iron John Herschel liquid luminous beam magnet mass Matterhorn mechanical ment microscope mind miracles molecular molecules motion Mozley Nature needle nerve Nicol nitrite of amyl observed optic optic nerve oxygen particles pass Pasteur pébrine perfectly phenomena philosopher physical planet platinum polarization pole possess present prism produced quantity question radiant heat radiation regards render repulsion result retina scientific solar space spectrum substance surface temperature theory thing thought tion transparent ultra-red velocity vibrations vis viva visible viva wire
Popular passages
Page 330 - Fame is the spur that the clear spirit doth raise (That last infirmity of noble mind) To scorn delights, and live laborious days; But the fair guerdon when we hope to find, And think to burst out into sudden blaze, Comes the blind Fury with th' abhorred shears, And slits the thin-spun life.
Page 12 - that every particle of matter in the universe attracts every other particle, with a force whose direction is that of the line joining the two, and whose magnitude is directly as the product of their masses, and inversely as the square of their distances from each other.
Page 119 - ... the passage from the physics of the brain to the corresponding facts of consciousness is unthinkable. Granted that a definite thought and a definite molecular action in the brain occur simultaneously, we do not possess the intellectual organ, nor, apparently, any rudiment of the organ, which would enable us to pass by a process of reasoning from the one phenomenon to the other. They appear together, but we do not know why.
Page 126 - Was war ein Gott, der nur von außen stieße, Im Kreis das All am Finger laufen ließe! Ihm ziemt's, die Welt im Innern zu bewegen, Natur in Sich, Sich in Natur zu hegen, So daß, was in Ihm lebt und webt und ist, Nie Seine Kraft, nie Seinen Geist vermißt.
Page 89 - Rhodora ! if the sages ask thee why This charm is wasted on the earth and sky, Tell them, dear, that if eyes were made for seeing, Then Beauty is its own excuse for being : Why thou wert there, O rival of the rose ! I never thought to ask, I never knew : But, in my simple ignorance, suppose The self-same Power that brought me there brought you.
Page 72 - Choose well ; your choice is Brief, and yet endless. Here eyes do regard you, In Eternity's stillness; Here is all fulness, Ye brave, to reward you; Work, and despair not.
Page 96 - Self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-control, These three alone lead life to sovereign power. Yet not for power (power of herself Would come uncall'd for) but to live by law, Acting the law we live by without fear; And, because right is right, to follow right Were wisdom in the scorn of consequence.
Page 330 - Phoebus replied, and touched my trembling ears: ' Fame is no plant that grows on mortal soil, Nor in the glistering foil Set off to the world, nor in broad rumour lies, But lives and spreads aloft by those pure eyes And perfect witness of all-judging Jove: As he pronounces lastly on each deed, Of so much fame in heaven expect thy meed.
Page 52 - By their fruits ye shall know them. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles ? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but the corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.
Page 349 - But though the natural works of God can never by any possibility come in contradiction with the higher things that belong to our future existence, and must with everything concerning Him ever glorify Him, still I do not think it at all necessary to tie the study of the natural sciences and religion together, and, in my intercourse with my fellow creatures, that which is religious and that which is philosophical have ever been two distinct things.