University of Edinburgh alumni

"Those who have doubted my veracity have paid a compliment to my genius."

"The wrath of the son of Peleus,—O goddess of song, unfold! The deadly wrath of Achilles: To Greece the source of many woes! Which peopled the regions of death,—with shades of heroes untimely slain: While pale they lay along the shore: Torn by beasts and birds of prey: But such was the will of Jove! Begin the verse, from the source of rage,—between Achilles and the sovereign of men."

"Often does the memory of former times come, like the evening sun, on my soul."

"Go, view the settling sea: the stormy wind is laid. The billows still tremble on the deep. They seem to fear the blast."

"Daughter of heaven, fair art thou! the silence of thy face is pleasant! Thou comest forth in loveliness. The stars attend thy blue course in the east. The clouds rejoice in thy presence, O moon! They brighten their dark-brown sides. Who is like thee in heaven, light of the silent night? The stars are ashamed in thy presence. They turn away their sparkling eyes. Whither dost thou retire from thy course, when the darkness of thy countenance grows? Hast thou thy hall, like Ossian? Dwellest thou in the shadow of grief? Have thy sisters fallen from heaven? Are they who rejoiced with thee, at night, no more? Yes! they have fallen, fair light! and thou dost often retire to mourn. But thou thyself shalt fail, one night; and leave thy blue path in heaven. The stars will then lift their heads: they, who were ashamed in thy presence, will rejoice. Thou art now clothed with thy brightness. Look from thy gates in the sky. Burst the cloud, O wind! that the daughter of night may look forth! that the shaggy mountains may brighten, and the ocean roll its white waves in light."

"Hast thou left thy blue course in heaven, golden-haired son of the sky? The west has opened its gates; the bed of thy repose is there. The waves come to behold thy beauty. They lift their trembling heads. They see thee lovely in thy sleep; they shrink away with fear. Rest, in thy shadowy cave, O sun! let thy return be in joy."

"The people bend before me. I turn the battle in the field of the brave. I look on the nations, and they vanish: my nostrils pour the blast of death. I come abroad on the winds: the tempests are before my face. But my dwelling is calm, above the clouds; the fields of my rest are pleasant."

"They stood in silence, in their beauty: like two young trees of the plain, when the shower of spring is on their leaves, and the loud winds are laid."

"Sorrow, like a cloud on the sun, shades the soul of Clessammor."

"O thou that rollest above, round as the shield of my fathers! Whence are thy beams, O sun! thy everlasting light? Thou comest forth in thy awful beauty; the stars hide themselves in the sky; the moon, cold and pale, sinks in the western wave; but thou thyself movest alone. Who can be a companion of thy course? The oaks of the mountains fall; the mountains themselves decay with years; the ocean shrinks and grows again; the moon herself is lost in heaven: but thou art for ever the same, rejoicing in the brightness of thy course. When the world is dark with tempests, when thunder rolls and lightning flies, thou lookest in thy beauty from the clouds, and laughest at the storm. But to Ossian thou lookest in vain, for he beholds thy beams no more: whether thy yellow hair flows on the eastern clouds, or thou tremblest at the gates of the west. But thou art, perhaps, like me, for a season; thy years will have an end. Thou shalt sleep in thy clouds, careless of the voice of the morning. Exult then, O sun, in the strength of thy youth!"

"The music was like the memory of joys that are past, pleasant and mournful to the soul."

"Whither hast thou fled, O wind?" said the king of Morven. "Dost thou rustle in the chambers of the south? pursuest thou the shower in other lands? Why dost thou not come to my sails? to the blue face of my seas?"

"I was a lovely tree, in thy presence, Oscar, with all my branches round me; but thy death came like a blast from the desert, and laid my green head low."

"Why should Ossian sing of battles? For never more shall my steel shine in war. I remember the days of my youth with grief, when I feel the weakness of my arm. Happy are they who fell in their youth, in the midst of their renown! They have not beheld the tombs of their friends, or failed to bend the bow of their strength."

"O lay me, ye that see the light, near some rock of my hills! let the thick hazels be around, let the rustling oak be near. Green be the place of my rest; let the sound of the distant torrent be heard. Daughter of Toscar, take the harp, and raise the lovely song of Selma, that sleep may overtake my soul in the midst of joy; that the dreams of my youth may return, and the days of the mighty Fingal."

"Star of descending night! fair is thy light in the west! thou liftest thy unshorn head from thy cloud: thy steps are stately on thy hill. What dost thou behold in the plain? The stormy winds are laid. The murmur of the torrent comes from afar. Roaring waves climb the distant rock. The flies of evening are on their feeble wings; the hum of their course is on the field. What dost thou behold, fair light? But thou dost smile and depart. The waves come with joy around thee: they bathe thy lovely hair. Farewell, thou silent beam! Let the light of Ossian's soul arise!"

"The stream and the wind roar aloud. I hear not the voice of my love! Why delays my Salgar, why the chief of the hill, his promise? Here is the rock, and here the tree! here is the roaring stream! Thou didst promise with night to be here. Ah! whither is my Salgar gone? With thee I would fly from my father; with thee, from my brother of pride."

"My tears, O Ryno! are for the dead; my voice for those that have passed away. Tall thou art on the hill; fair among the sons of the vale. But thou shalt fall like Morar; the mourner shall sit on thy tomb. The hills shall know thee no more; thy bow shall lie in thy hall, unstrung! Thou wert swift, O Morar! as a roe on the desert; terrible as a meteor of fire. Thy wrath was as the storm. Thy sword in battle, as lightning in the field. Thy voice was a stream after rain; like thunder on distant hills. Many fell by thy arm; they were consumed in the flames of thy wrath. But when thou didst return from war, how peaceful was thy brow! Thy face was like the sun after rain; like the moon in the silence of night; calm as the breast of the lake when the loud wind is laid. Narrow is thy dwelling now! dark the place of thine abode! With three steps I compass thy grave, O thou who wast so great before. Four stones, with their heads of moss, are the only memorial of thee. A tree with scarce a leaf, long grass, which whistles in the wind, mark to the hunter's eye the grave of the mighty Morar."

"Far before the rest, the son of Ossian comes; bright in the smiles of youth, fair as the first beams of the sun. His long hair waves on his back: his dark brows are half hid beneath his helmet of steel. His sword hangs loose on the hero's side. His spear glitters as he moves. I fled from his terrible eyes, King of high Temora!"

"Where art thou, beam of light? Hunters, from the mossy rock, saw ye the blue-eyed fair?"

"Then rose the strife of kings about the hill of night; but it was soft as two summer gales, shaking their light wings on a lake."

"Can I forget that beam of light, the white-handed daughter of kings?"

"Whence is the stream of years? Whither do they roll along? Where have they hid, in mist, their many-coloured sides? I look into the times of old, but they seem dim to Ossian's eyes, like reflected moon-beams, on a distant lake."

"I look down from my height on nations And they become ashes before me."

"I beheld their chief, tall as a glittering rock. His spear is a blasted pine. His shield the rising moon! He sat on the shore, like a cloud of mist on the silent hill!"

"As autumn's dark storms pour from two echoing hills, toward each other approached the heroes.—As two dark streams from high rocks meet, and mix and roar on the plain; loud, rough and dark in battle met Lochlin and Innis-fail. Chief mixed his strokes with chief, and man with man; steel, clanging, sounded on steel, helmets are cleft on high. Blood bursts and smokes around. ... As the troubled noise of the ocean when roll the waves on high; as the last peal of the thunder of heaven, such is the noise of battle."

"As roll a thousand waves to the rocks, so Swaran's host came on. As meets a rock a thousand waves, so Erin met Swaran of spears."

"Pleasant are the words of the song," said Cuthullin, "and lovely are the tales of other times. They are like the calm dew of the morning on the hill of roes, when the sun is faint on its side, and the lake is settled and blue in the vale."

"The gloom of the battle roared."

"The groan of the people spread over the hills; it was like the thunder of night, when the cloud bursts on Cona; and a thousand ghosts shriek at once on the hollow wind."

"Son of my son," begun the king, "O Oscar, pride of youth! I saw the shining of thy sword, I gloried in my race. Pursue the fame of our fathers; be thou what they have been, when Trenmor lived, the first of men, and Trathal the father of heroes! They fought the battle in their youth. They are the song of bards. O Oscar! bend the strong in arm: but spare the feeble hand. Be thou a stream of many tides against the foes of thy people; but like the gale, that moves the grass, to those who ask thine aid. So Trenmor lived; such Trathal was; and such has Fingal been. My arm was the support of the injured; the weak rested behind the lightning of my steel."

"Hail, Carril of other times! Thy voice is like the harp in the halls of Tura."

"We may boldly assign him [Ossian] a place among those, whose works are to last for ages."

"That Fingal is not from beginning to end a translation from the Gallick, but that some passages have been supplied by the editor to connect the whole, I have heard admitted by very warm advocates for its authenticity. If this be the case, why are not these distinctly ascertained? Antiquaries, and admirers of the work, may complain, that they are in a situation similar to that of the unhappy gentleman whose wife informed him, on her death-bed, that one of their reputed children was not his; and, when he eagerly begged her to declare which of them it was, she answered, That you shall never know', and expired, leaving him in irremediable doubt as to them all."

"Dr. Blair, relying on the internal evidence of their antiquity, asked Dr. Johnson whether he thought any man of a modern age could have written such poems? Johnson replied, "Yes, Sir, many men, many women, and many children.""

"Except the Bible and Shakespeare, there is not any book that sells better than Ossian."

"Ossian, sublimest, simplest bard of all, Whom English infidels Macpherson call."

"Ossian is the decay and old age of poetry. He lives only in the recollection and regret of the past. There is one impression which he conveys more entirely than all other poets, namely, the sense of privation, the loss of all things."

"Sir, a man might write such stuff for ever, if he would abandon his mind to it."

"Why is not the original deposited in some public library, instead of exhibiting attestations of its existence? Suppose there were a question in a court of justice, whether a man be dead or alive. You aver he is alive, and you bring fifty witnesses to swear it. I answer, 'Why do you not produce the man?'"

"I received your foolish and impudent letter. Any violence offered me I shall do my best to repel; and what I cannot do for myself, the law shall do for me. I hope I shall never be deterred from detecting what I think a cheat, by the menaces of a ruffian. What would you have me retract? I thought your book an imposture; I think it an imposture still. For this opinion I have given my reasons to the publick, which I here dare you to refute. Your rage I defy. Your abilities, since your Homer, are not so formidable; and what I hear of your morals, inclines me to pay regard not to what you shall say, but to what you shall prove. You may print this if you will."

"These pieces have been and will, I think, during my life, continue to be to me the sources of daily and exalted pleasures. The tender and the sublime emotions of the mind were never before so wrought up by the human hand. I am not ashamed to own that I think this rude bard of the North the greatest poet that has ever existed. Merely for the pleasure of reading his works, I am become desirous of learning the language in which he sung, and of possessing his songs in their original form."

"With a genius truly poetical, he [Macpherson] was one of the first literary impostors in modern times."

"I first read the poems in my early youth, with an ardent credulity that remained unshaken for many years of my life; and with a pleasure to which even the triumphant satisfaction of detecting the imposture is comparatively nothing. The enthusiasm with which I read and studied the poems, enabled me afterwards, when my suspicions were once awakened, to trace and expose the deception with greater success. Yet, notwithstanding the severity of minute criticism, I can still peruse them as a wild and wonderful assemblage of imitations, with which the fancy is often pleased and gratified, even when the judgment condemns them most."

"Par une de ces journées sombres qui attristent la fin de l'année, et que rend encore plus mélancoliques le souffle glacé du vent du Nord, écoutez, en lisant Ossian, la fantastique harmonie d'une harpe éolienne balancée au sommet d'un arbre dépouillé de verdure, et vous pourrez éprouver un sentiment profond de tristesse, un désir vague et infini d'une autre existence, un dégoût immense de celle-ci."

"He produced a work of art which by its deep appreciation of natural beauty and the melancholy tenderness of its treatment of the ancient legend did more than any single work to bring about the romantic movement in European, and especially in German, literature."

"Carthon, one of the poems, was translated into French as early as 1762 while the collected works followed suit in 1777. Diderot loved them. Voltaire parodied them. Ossianic plays, operas, and mimes were written. They influenced or attracted Mme. de Staël, Chateaubriand, Lamartine, Alfred de Vigny, Victor Hugo, and Alfred de Musset. Napoleon became a fervent admirer after he had read the poems in the Italian translation by Cesarotti."

"One is tempted to call them works of genius; they are quite Homeric in their internal unity, purity of phrasing, clear, ringing music of language and dramatic coloring."

"All hail, Macpherson! hail to thee, Sire of Ossian! The Phantom was begotten by the suing embrace of all impudent Highlander upon a cloud of tradition—it travelled southward, where it was greeted with acclamation, and the thin Consistence took its course through Europe, upon the breath of popular applause. [...] Having had the good fortune to be born and reared in a mountainous country, from my very childhood I have felt the falsehood that pervades the volumes imposed upon the world under the name of Ossian. From what I saw with my own eyes, I knew that the imagery was spurious. In Nature everything is distinct, yet nothing defined into absolute independent singleness. In Macpherson's work, it is exactly the reverse; every thing (that is not stolen) is in this manner defined, insulated, dislocated, deadened,—yet nothing distinct. It will always be so when words are substituted for things. [...] Yet, much as those pretended treasures of antiquity have been admired, they have been wholly uninfluential upon the literature of the Country. No succeeding writer appears to have taught from them a ray of inspiration; no author, in the least distinguished, has ventured formally to imitate them—except the boy, Chatterton, on their first appearance. [...] This incapacity to amalgamate with the literature of the Island, is, in my estimation, a decisive proof that the book is essentially unnatural; nor should I require any other to demonstrate it to be a forgery, audacious as worthless."

"The Gulf of Mexico is a very big ocean. The amount of volume of oil and dispersant we are putting into it is tiny in relation to the total water volume."

"There's no one who wants this Deepwater Horizon oil spill] over more than I do. I'd like my life back."

"I made a hurtful and thoughtless comment on Sunday when I said that "I wanted my life back." When I read that recently, I was appalled. I apologize, especially to the families of the 11 men who lost their lives in this tragic accident."

"The hypothesis of molecular vortices is defined to be that which assumes — that each atom of matter consists of a nucleus or central point enveloped by an elastic atmosphere, which is retained in its position by attractive forces, and that the elasticity due to heat arises from the centrifugal force of those atmospheres revolving or oscillating about their nuclei or central points. According to this hypothesis, quantity of heat is the vis viva of the molecular revolutions or oscillations."

"Discrepancy between theory and practice, which in sound physical and mechanical science is a delusion, has a real existence in the minds of men; and that fallacy, through rejected by their judgments, continues to exert and influence over their acts."

"This law (regarding the theoretical efficiency of heat engines by Mr. Joule), and the law of the maximum efficiency of heat engines, are particular cases of a general law which regulates all transformation of energy, and is the basis of the Science of Energetics."

"An essential distinction exists between two stages in the process of advancing our knowledge of the laws of physical phenomena; the first stage consists in observing the relations of phenomena, whether of such as occur in the ordinary course of nature, or of such as are artificially produced in experimental investigations, and in expressing the relations so observed by propositions called formal laws. The second stage consists in reducing the formal laws of an entire class of phenomena to the form of a science; that is to say, in discovering the most simple system of principles, from which all the formal laws of the class of phenomena can be deduced as consequences."

"A physical theory, like an abstract science, consists of definitions and axioms as first principles, and of propositions, their consequences; but with these differences:—first, That in an abstract science, a definition assigns a name to a class of notions derived originally from observation, but not necessarily corresponding to any existing objects of real phenomena, and an axiom states a mutual relation amongst such notions, or the names denoting them; while in a physical science, a definition states properties common to a class of existing objects, or real phenomena, and a physical axiom states a general law as to the relations of phenomena; and, secondly,—That in an abstract science, the propositions first discovered are the most simple; whilst in a physical theory, the propositions first discovered are in general numerous and complex, being formal laws, the immediate results of observation and experiment, from which the definitions and axioms are subsequently arrived at by a process of reasoning differing from that whereby one proposition is deduced from another in an abstract science, partly in being more complex and difficult, and partly in being to a certain extent tentative, that is to say, involving the trial of conjectural principles, and their acceptance or rejection according as their consequences are found to agree or disagree with the formal laws deduced immediately from observation and experiment."

"A hypothetical theory is necessary, as a preliminary step, to reduce the expression of the phenomena to simplicity and order before it is possible to make any progress in framing an abstractive theory."

"The evil influence of the supposed inconsistency of theory and practice upon speculative science, although much less conspicuous than it was in the ancient and middle ages, is still occasionally to be traced. This it is which opposes the mutual communication of ideas between men of science and men of practice, and which leads scientific men sometimes to employ, on problems that can only be regarded as ingenious mathematical exercises, much time and mental exertion that would be better bestowed on questions having some connection with the arts, and sometimes to state the results of really important investigations on practical subjects in a form too abstruse for ordinary use; so that the benefit which might be derived from their application is for years lost to the public; and valuable practical principles which might have been anticipated by reasoning, are left to be discovered by slow and costly experience."

"[O]f that scientifically practical skill which produces the greatest effect with the least possible expenditure of material and work, the instances are comparatively rare. In too many cases we see the strength and the stability which ought to be given by the skilful arrangement of the parts of a structure supplied by means of clumsy massiveness, and of lavish expenditure of material, labour, and money; and the evil is increased by a perversion of the public taste, which causes works to be admired, not in proportion to their fitness for their purposes, or to the skill evinced in attaining that fitness, but in proportion to their size and cost."

"With respect to those works which, from unscientific design, give way during or immediately after their erection, I shall say little; for with all their evils, they add to our experimental knowledge, and convey a lesson, though a costly one."

"But a class of structures fraught with much greater evils exist in great abundance throughout the country—namely, those in which the faults of an unscientific design have been so far counteracted by massive strength, good materials, and careful workmanship, that a temporary stability has been produced, but which contain within themselves sources of weakness, obvious to a scientific examination... that must inevitably cause their destruction within a limited number of years."

"Another evil, and one of the worst which arises from the separation of theoretical and practical knowledge, is the fact that a large number of persons, possessed of an inventive turn of mind and of considerable skill in the manual operations of practical mechanics, are destitute of that knowledge of scientific principles which is requisite to prevent their being misled by their own ingenuity. Such men too often spend their money, waste their lives, and it may be lose their reason in the vain pursuits of visionary inventions, of which a moderate amount of theoretical knowledge would be sufficient to demonstrate the fallacy ; and for want of such knowledge, many a man who might have been a useful and happy member of society, becomes a being than whom it would be hard to find anything more miserable. The number of those unhappy persons — to judge from the patent-lists, and from some of the mechanical journals — must be much greater than is generally believed."

"The most absurd of all their delusions commonly called the , or to speak more accurately, the inexhaustible source of power—is, in various forms, the subject of several patents in each year."

"The ill-success of the projects of misdirected ingenuity has very naturally the effect of driving those men of practical skill, who, though without scientific knowledge, possess prudence and common sense, to the opposite extreme of caution, and of inducing them to avoid all experiments, and to confine themselves to the careful copying of successful existing structures and machines; a course which, although it avoids risk, would, if generally followed, stop the progress of all improvement. A similar course has sometimes... been adopted by men possessed of scientific as well as practical skill: such men having, in certain cases, from deference to popular prejudice, or from a dread of being reputed us theorists, considered it advisable to adopt the worse and customary design for a work in preference to a better but unusual design."

"Some of the evils which are caused by the fallacy of an incompatibility between theory and practice having been described, it must now be admitted, that at the present time those evils show a decided tendency to decline. The extent of intercourse, and of mutual assistance, between men of science and men of practice, the practical knowledge of scientific men, and the scientific knowledge of practical men, have been for some time steadily increasing; and that combination and harmony of theoretical and practical knowledge—that skill in the application of scientific principles to practical purposes, which in former times was confined to a few remarkable individuals, now tends to become more generally diffused."

"Mechanical knowledge may... be distinguished into three kinds; purely scientific knowledge, purely practical knowledge, and that intermediate kind of knowledge which relates to the application of scientific principles to practical purposes, and which arises from understanding the harmony of theory and practice."

"The objects of instruction in purely scientific mechanics and physics are, first, to produce in the student that improvement of the understanding which results from the cultivation of natural knowledge, and that elevation of mind which flows from the contemplation of the order of the universe; and secondly, if possible, to qualify him to become a scientific discoverer."

"In this branch of study exactness is an essential feature; and mathematical difficulties must not be shrunk from when the nature of the subject leads to them."

"The ascertainment and illustration of truth are the objects; and structures and machines are looked upon merely as natural bodies are; namely, as furnishing experimental data for the ascertaining of principles and examples for their application."

"The third and intermediate kind of instruction, which connects the first two... relates to the application of scientific principles to practical purposes. It qualifies the student to plan a structure or a machine for a given purpose, without the necessity of copying some existing example, and to adapt his designs to situations to which no existing example affords a parallel. It enables him to compute the theoretical limit of the strength or stability of a structure, or the efficiency of a machine of a particular kind—to ascertain how far an actual structure or machine fails to attain that limit—to discover the cause of such shortcomings—and to devise improvements for obviating such causes; and it enables him to judge how far an established practical rule is founded on reason, how far on mere custom, and how far on error."

"In the original discovery of a proposition of practical utility, by deduction from general principles and from experimental data, a complex algebraical investigation is often not merely useful, but indispensable; but in expounding such a proposition as a part of practical science, and applying it to practical purposes, simplicity is of the importance:—and... the more thoroughly a scientific man has studied higher mathematics, the more fully does he become aware of this truth—and... the better qualified does he become to free the exposition and application of principles from mathematical intricacy."

"Sir John Herschel's "Outlines of Astronomy"—[is] a work in which one of the most profound mathematicians in the world has succeeded admirably in divesting of all mathematical intricacy the explanation of the principles of that natural science which employs higher mathematics most."

"[T]he symbols of algebra, when employed in abstruse and complex theoretical investigations, constitute a sort of thought-saving machine, by whose aid a person skilled in its use can solve problems respecting quantities, and dispense with the mental labour of thinking of the quantities denoted by the symbols, except at the beginning and the end of the operation."

"In treating of the practical application of scientific principles, an algebraical formula should only be employed when its shortness and simplicity are such as to render it a clearer expression of a proposition or rule than common language would be, and when there is no difficulty in keeping the thing represented by each symbol constantly before the mind."

"In theoretical science, the question is—What are we to think? and when a doubtful point arises, for the solution of which either experimental data are wanting, or mathematical methods are not sufficiently advanced, it is the duty of philosophic minds not to dispute about the probability of conflicting suppositions, but to labour for the advancement of experimental inquiry and of mathematics, and await patiently the time when they shall be adequate to solve the question."

"But in practical science, the question is—What are we to do?—a question which involves the necessity for the immediate adoption of some rule of working. In doubtful cases, we cannot allow our machines and our works of improvement to wait for the advancement of science; and if existing data are insufficient to give an exact solution of the question, that approximate solution must be acted upon which the best data attainable show to be the most probable. A prompt and sound judgment in cases of this kind is one of the characteristics of a Practical Man in the right sense of that term."

"It is possible to express the laws of thermodynamics in the form of independent principles, deduced by induction from the facts of observation and experiment, without reference to any hypothesis as to the occult molecular operations with which the sensible phenomena may be conceived to be connected; and that course will be followed in the body of the present treatise. But, in giving a brief historical sketch of the progress of thermodynamics, the progress of the hypothesis of thermic molecular motions cannot be wholly separated from that of the purely inductive theory."

"Hypothesis Of Molecular Vortices. In thermodynamics as well as in other branches of molecular physics, the laws of phenomena have to a certain extent been anticipated, and their investigation facilitated, by the aid of hypotheses as to occult molecular structures and motions with which such phenomena are assumed to be connected. The hypothesis which has answered that purpose in the case of thermodynamics, is called that of "molecular vortices," or otherwise, the "centrifugal theory of elasticity. (On this subject, see the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, 1849; Edinburgh Transactions, vol. xx.; and Philosophical Magazine, passim, especially for December, 1851, and November and December, 1855.)"

"Science Of Energetics. Although the mechanical hypothesis just mentioned may be useful and interesting as a means of anticipating laws, and connecting the science of thermodynamics with that of ordinary mechanics, still it is to be remembered that the science of thermodynamics is by no means dependent for its certainty on that or any other hypothesis, having been now reduced, to a system of principles, or general facts, expressing strictly the results of experiment as to the relations between heat and motive power. In this point of view the laws of thermodynamics may be regarded as particular cases of more general laws, applicable to all such states of matter as constitute Energy, or the capacity to perform work, which more general laws form the basis of the science of energetics, — a science comprehending, as special branches, the theories of motion, heat, light, electricity, and all other physical phenomena."

"We have... used the word stress to denote the mutual action between two portions of matter. This word was borrowed from common language, and invested with a precise scientific meaning by the late Professor Rankine to whom we are indebted for several other valuable scientific terms."

"He who thinks he hath no need of Christ, hath too high thoughts of himself. He who thinks Christ cannot help him, hath too low thoughts of Christ."

"When I go to the house of God I do not want amusement; I want the doctrine which is according to godliness. I want to hear the remedy against the harassing of my guilt and the disorder of my affections. I want to be led from weariness and disappointment to that goodness which filleth the hungry soul. I want to have light upon the mystery of Providence; to be taught how the judgments of the Lord are right; how I shall be prepared for duty and for trial; how I may fear God all the days of my life, and close them in peace."

"They that deny themselves for Christ shall enjoy themselves in Christ."

"Judge thyself with the judgment of sincerity, and thou wilt judge others with the judgment of charity."

"A zealous soul without meekness is like a ship in a storm, in danger of wrecks. A meek soul without zeal, is like a ship in a calm, that moves not so fast as it ought."

"In the early part of my chymical studies, the author whose works made the most agreeable impression on my mind was Markgraaf of Berlin; he contrived and executed his experiments with so much chymical skill that they were uncommonly instructive and satisfactory; and he described them with so much modesty and simplicity, avoiding entirely the parade of erudition and self-importance, with which many other authors encumber their works, that I was quite charmed... and said to Dr. Cullen I would rather be the author of Markgraaf's Essays than of all the Chymical works in the library. The celebrated Reaumur's method of writing appeared to me also uncommonly pleasing. After 3 years spent with Dr. Cullen, I came to Edinburgh to finish my education in medicine. Here I attended the lectures of Dr. Munro, senr. and the other medical Professors, until the summer of the year 1754, when I received the degree of Doctor of Medicine, and printed my inaugural Dissertation De Humere Acido a Cibis Orto et Magnesia Alba."

"Most Honrd Sir Your most affectionate letter of the 8th Aprill shews you in such a light as must warm the heart of a son with the highest degree of gratitude and affection."

"Others in the pursuits after happiness or pleasure must commonly seek those sources of it which they cannot enjoy without some inconvenience to the rest of their fellow creatures; hence they have their imaginary happiness so much soured by Envy, Jealousy, or self-disapprobation that they find themselves dissappointed."

"Your happiness on the contrary is quite secure because you place it entirely in making others happy and doing those things to the utmost of your power which you can afterwards reflect upon with satisfaction. I must own your letter had that effect upon me that it made me apply to my work with double eagerness and alacrity with the hopes of being some time what you are at present."

"I am not yet installed into the order of the great wig, but have gone through all the examinations, & nothing is wanting but the ceremony, that has been put off by the Processors to wait for some others that are to be promoted along with me 6 days hence."

"In my last letter to you I proposed to go immediately to London to spend some time in the Hospitals there. I am now advised to put that off and remain here yet a while longer; & I must own the reasons for it are very strong quite unanswerable by me unless you disapprove of them. The following are the chief of them."

"I have now studied the Theory of medicine & have likewise been taught every thing upon the Practice which can be learned in a College. I have also seen some real Practice & have even practised a little myself. But all this is not enough."

"I should be thoroughly acquainted with the real Practice & this is a thing very different from what can be learned in a College; thus for instance we are taught by our Professors that if a sick person breaths with great difficulty, one thing must be done; if his respiration is yet more laborious, another. But how shall we judge of the nice degrees of laborious breathing unless from a dayly & familiar acquaintance with, & study of, the appearances and looks of Patients &c. Most young Physicians neglect this essential point of their art in their education & very often acquire it when they come to Practice at the expense of their patients' safety."

"I have not had time this last winter to apply to it sufficiently; tho I had the opportunities, my attention was too much taken up with some of the Colleges, preparing my Thesis, & recalling to my mind everything I had learned, on account of the examinations."

"If I go to London to acquire this part of medicine, I may see a good deal of Practice, but I am a stranger there, & have no acquaintance whom I can venture to trust so much or be so familiar with as to trouble him with all my questions and doubts.—On the contrary here, medicine is allowed on all hands to be in a very flourishing condition. It is practised in the most rational & simple manner."

"I have the happiness to be lodged with a Gentleman who is justly esteemed by all his Brethren, who has extensive practice both as a Physician & Surgeon & tho no Doctor himself, yet the oldest of them are not ashamed to consult with him in private. Besides this he is my intimate & familiar Friend & is willing upon every occasion to teach me as far as he knows himself."

"When I am well instructed in a method of Practice here, a very short time of London will be sufficient; for then I need only observe the different manner of doing the same thing there, which I shall soon be master of."

"These, sir, are the chief of the reasons which have been urged to me for staying here some time longer & which I thought so good that I determined to acquaint you with them & in the meanwhile [I] will employ my time to the best advantage till I have your opinion of them. I am Dr Sir Your most affecte & Dutyfull Son,"

"The quantitative investigations of Black on the burning of lime and magnesia alba, in which the balance (previously characterized by the French chemist Jean Rey as "an instrument for clowns") was applied at every turn, led to the rejection of a hypothetical "principle of causticity," and replaced it by a "sensible ingredient of a sensible body," fixed air."

"The extension of Black's method by the physicist Lavoisier led to the downfall of the purely qualitative theory of phlogiston, and gave to chemistry the true methods of investigation, and its first great quantitative law—the law of conservation of matter."

"He had discovered that a cubic inch of marble consisted of about half its weight of pure lime, and as much air as would fill a vessel holding six wine gallons. ...What could be more singular than to find so subtle a substance as air existing in the form of a hard stone, and its presence accompanied by such a change in the properties of that stone? … It is surely a dull mind that will not be animated by such a prospect."

"Black discovered the difference between weak and strong s, i.e. between the alkali s and s. The work... is essentially quantitative, and... leads into... gas analysis, which was to play a very important role in providing a new chemical theory. ...Black ...first showed that and were two different substances. Although both effervesce when treated with s... [m]agnesium carbonate does not form common lime when heated strongly, and on cooling, the residue is insoluble in water. This product of ignition (oxide) however forms the same salts with acids as does the original salt (carbonate) with the difference that no effervescence occurs. Black also observed that during ignition "air" () is lost, and supposed that to be responsible for the loss of weight as well as for the effervescence... [H]e dissolved the magnesium oxide in sulphuric acid and then precipitated the magnesium with . ...[T]he composition of the precipitate was identical with that... before the ignition... He... concluded that alkali carbonates were not elemental substances, as had been originally thought, because they give "air" to the... oxide... [the] same "air"... responsible for the effervescence... Black then [examined] lime and limestone and applied similar experiments. He established that the air was not identical with atmospheric air... only a component... called by Black "fixed air"... that part... absorbed by lime and the alkali hyroxides. ...[T]he relationship... is similar to that between alkalis and acids... alkalis are "in some measure neutralized" by the fixed air. However, the relation between acids and alkalis is stronger as the acid drives out the fixed air."

"Black... began a new epoch in Chemistry and Physics, by his fundamental work on Heat, and on the nature of chemical combination; and his name must ever remain associated with those of other illustrious Scotsmen of his day as one who led the way in chemical research and its technical applications."

"Black's celebrated thesis ...gained for him not merely the degree of Doctor of Medicine, but also brought his name before every "philosopher" in Europe and America as that of a man who had made a discovery of more fundamental influence on the progress of Chemistry than any which had previously been described."

"In the olden days it was considered quite as marvellous that a gas could be made to occupy a small volume, or that "air" could be produced in quantity from a stone, as that an Arabian "djinn" of enormous size and ferocious mien could issue from a bottle..."

"[I]n the middle of the seventeenth century Robert Boyle had enunciated his famous discovery, "Touching the Spring of the Air"; in which he proved that the greater the pressure to which a gas is exposed the smaller the volume it will occupy. But however great the pressure, Boyle's air remained air."

"It was Black's discovery of the production of carbonic-acid gas, or, as he named it, "fixed air," from , which first directed notice to this possibility of the production of a gas from a solid; and, further, the peculiar property of this gas its power of being fixed was one which completely differentiated it from ordinary air."

"Stephen Hales... had distilled many substances of vegetable, animal, and mineral origin ; among them he treated many which must have produced impure hydrogen, marsh-gas, carbonic-acid gas, and oxygen; but Hales contented himself with measuring the volume of gases obtained from a known weight of material, without concerning himself as to their properties. And, as the result of many experiments, he concluded that "our atmosphere is a chaos, consisting not only of elastick, but also of unelastick air-particles, which in plenty float in it, as well as the sulphureous, saline, watry, and earthy particles, which are no ways capable of being thrown off into a permanently elastick state, like those particles which constitute true permanent air." This was the current belief as regards the nature of air."

"[I]t was with the object of discovering a "milder alkali," and bringing it into the service of medicine, that Black began his experiments on magnesia. They are described in... "Experiments upon Magnesia Alba, Quicklime, and some other Alcaline Substances"... his thesis for the... M.D... at Edinburgh in 1754; he had been making the experiments since 1752. The actual thesis was in Latin: "De Humore Acido a Cibis orto, et Magnesia Alba"; the pamphlet was published in the following year."

"As Dr. Black had never anything for ostentation, he was at all times precisely what the occasion required, and no more. Never did anyone see Dr. Black hurried at one time to recover matter which had been improperly neglected on a former occasion. Everything being done in its proper season and place, he ever seemed to have leisure in store; and he was ready to receive his friend or acquaintance, and to take his part with cheerfulness in any conversation that occurred."

"As he advanced in years, his countenance continued to preserve that pleasing expression of inward satisfaction, which, by giving ease to the beholder, never fails to please. His manner was perfectly easy and unaffected, and graceful. He was of most easy approach, affable, and readily entered into conversation, whether serious or trivial. His mind being abundantly furnished with matter, his conversation was at all times pertinent and agreeable. He was a stranger to none of the elegant accomplishments of life."

"I do not imagine that Mr. Black's researches at this time (or perhaps at any time) have been keen or pertinacious. This could not accord with the native gentleness of his mind; but his conceptions being distinct, and his judgment sound, his progress in scientific research, if slow, was steady, and his acquisitions were solid. Perhaps this moderation and sobriety of thought was his happiest disposition, and the most conducive to his improvement."

"During the period in which the theory of phlogiston reached its zenith, four names stand out in bold relief. They are those of Joseph Black (1728–99), Henry Cavendish (1731–1810), Karl Wilhelm Scheele (1742–86), and Joseph Priestley (1733–1804). Of these men the last three were steadfast adherents of the theory, while Black seems to have been indifferent, devoting himself to his researches and placing his own interpretation upon his results."

"Black was Professor of Chemistry at Glasgow and Edinburgh successively, and although he published only three papers on chemical subjects, these were models of accuracy and logic, and may still be read with profit by the novice—and indeed by the mature chemist. The most important of the three is entitled Experiments upon Magnesia Alba, Quicklime, and some other Alcaline Substances, published in 1756. A modern reprint of it was made by the Alembic Club..."

"In all essentials, Black's explanation is identical with our own, and the careful logic of his procedure makes his monograph conspicuous at once among the multitude of useful researches which were now beginning to bear witness to the new spirit in chemistry."

"His only other important discovery was that of the s, but he is nevertheless correctly regarded as one of the greatest chemists of one of the most fruitful periods of chemistry, and his fame rests upon impregnable foundations."

"Black's research began in an attempt to produce a milder [for medicinal use] from Epsom salts. ...He commenced by studying the different forms of lime. , when heated in a fire, became activated, and this quicklime, when placed in water, generated much heat, and was transformed into slaked lime. The limestone was supposed to have absorbed phlogiston from the fire and later to have lost it to the water. Black heated a weighed quantity of marble and found that in the process it lost weight, thus giving the first blow to the phlogiston theory. He next showed that if slaked lime be treated with a mild alkali, such as , it is changed again to chalk, while the mild alkali becomes caustic alkali."

"In modern nomenclature the changes are:"

"Black realized that when or was heated, a gas which he called fixed air was released. He was able to collect the gas, which we know as , and to study its properties. He was also able to show that carbon dioxide was a normal constituent of the air because quicklime was changed into ordinary chalk, albeit tardily, by exposure to air. This was the first atmospheric gas to be isolated and described. The discovery heralded the dawn of a new era in chemical investigation, and so Black is often given the title-Father of Pneumatic Chemistry."

"Much of Black's success was due to his accuracy in weighing. The experiments quoted are the first example of a reversible chemical reaction. A certain weight of chalk is taken in experiment 1 and the same weight is recovered at the end of experiment 3. In the words of Sir William Ramsay, "his proof that the change of a complex compound to simpler compounds, and the building up of a complex compound from simpler ones, can be followed successfully by the use of the balance, has had for its consequence the whole development of chemistry." On this score he has been called the Father of Quantitative Chemistry."

"It is very evident that both the prophets in the Old Testament and the apostles in the New are at great pains to give us a view of the glory and dignity of the person of Christ. With what magnificent titles is he adorned! What glorious attributes are ascribed to him! All these conspire to teach us that he is truly and properly God - God over all, blessed forever!"

"Mistake me not, my brethren: I am not speaking against learning in itself; it is a precious gift of God, and may be happily improved in the service of the gospel; but I will venture to say, in the spirit of the apostle Paul's writings in general, and of this passage in particular, Accursed be all that learning which sets itself in opposition to the cross of Christ! Accursed be all that learning which disguises or is ashamed of the cross of Christ! Accursed be all that learning which fills the room that is due to the cross of Christ! and once more, Accursed be all that learning which is not made subservient to the honour and glory of the cross of Christ!"

"It is only the fear of God, can deliver us from the fear of man."

"The general aim of my book has been but to point out a way in which a solution of these numerous problems (behavior and development) can be attained. The nature of mental development as it has been revealed to us is not the bringing together of separate elements, but the arousal and perfection of more and more complicated configurations in which both the phenomena of consciousness and the functions of the organism go hand in hand."

"To apply the category of cause and effect means to find out which parts of nature stand in this relation. Similarly, to apply the gestalt category means to find out which parts of nature belong as parts to functional wholes, to discover their position in these wholes, their degree of relative independence, and the articulation of larger wholes into sub-wholes."

"Conduct, of course, is possible without science. Humans carried on in their daily affairs long before the first spark of science had been struck. And today there are millions of people living whose actions are not determined by anything we call science. Science, however, could not but gain an increasing influence on human behaviour. To describe this influence roughly and briefly will throw a new light on science. Exaggerating and schematizing the differences, we can say: in the prescientific stage man behaves in a situation as the situation tells him to behave. To primitive man each thing says what it is and what he ought to do with it: a fruit says, "Eat me"; water says, "Drink me"; thunder says, "Fear me," and woman says, "Love me.""

"We have discussed quantity, order and meaning with regard to their contributions to science in general and to psychology in particular. We extracted each of our categories from a different science, but we claimed that despite their different origins, they are all universally applicable. And as a matter of fact, in our treatment of the issues involved in each of our three categories we have found the same general principle: to integrate quantity and quality, mechanism and vitalism, explanation and comprehension or understanding, we had to abandon the treatment of a number of separate facts for the consideration of a group of facts in their specific form of connection. Only thus could quantity be qualitative, and order and meaning be saved from being either introduced into the system of science as new entities, the privileges of life and mind, or discarded as mere figments."

"Psychology is a very unsatisfactory science. Comparing the vast body of systematised and recognised facts in physics with those in psychology one will doubt the advisability of teaching the latter to anybody who does not intend to become a professional psychologist, one might even doubt the advisability of training professional psychologists. But when one considers the potential contribution which psychology can make to our understanding of the universe, one's attitude may be changed. Science becomes easily divorced from life. The mathematician needs an escape from the thin air of his abstractions, beautiful as they are; the physicist wants to revel in sounds that are soft, mellow, and melodious, that seem to reveal mysteries which are hidden under the curtain of waves and atoms and mathematical equations; and even the biologist likes to enjoy the antics of his dog on Sundays unhampered by his weekday conviction that in reality they - are but chains of machine-like reflexes"

"Things look as they do because of the field organization to which the proximal stimulus distribution gives rise. This answer is final and can be so only because it contains the whole problem of organization itself."

"Even these humble objects reveal that our reality is not a mere collocation of elemental facts, but consists of units in which no part exists by itself, where each part points beyond itself and implies a larger whole. Facts and significance cease to be two concepts belonging to different realms, since a fact is always a fact in an intrinsically coherent whole. We could solve no problem of organization by solving it for each point separately, one after the other; the solution had to come for the whole. Thus we see how the problem of significance is closely bound up with the problem of the relation between the whole and its parts. It has been said: The whole is more than the sum of its parts. It is more correct to say that the whole is something else than the sum of its parts, because summing is a meaningless procedure, whereas the whole-part relationship is meaningful."

"Why We See Things and Not the Holes Between Them. We can now attempt an answer to the question why we do so. Two of the factors of organization which we have so far discussed seem to me to be the most important causes of this effect. In the first place, the segregation and unification which occurs will separate areas of different degrees of internal articulation, and according to our law, the more highly articulated ones will become figures, the rest fusing together to form the ground. Look at any landscape photograph. You see the shape of the things, the mountains, and trees and buildings, but not of the sky."

"The second factor, equally important, is that of good continuation and good shape. The things which we see have a better shape, are bounded by better contours, than the holes which we might see but do not. Therefore, when in exceptional circumstances these conditions are reversed, we see the hole and not the things, as the shape of a gap between two projecting rocks with sharp profiles, which may look like a face, an animal, or some other object, while the shape of the rock disappears."

"A complete theory would have to answer, among others, the following questions, given two adjoining retinal areas of different stimulation, under what conditions will the corresponding parts of the behavioural (perceptual) field appear of different whiteness but equal brightness (or "illumination"), when of different brightness but equal whiteness? A complete answer to this question would probably supply the key to the complete theory of colour perception in the broadest sense."

"In our theory the total field of excitation is divided into two major sub-systems, each containing numerous sub-systems of its own: the Ego and the environment. And the trace field which is created by the excitation field contains the same dichotomous organization."

"If an environmental trace is in close connection with the Ego system it will not only be in communication with the particular time structure of that system with which it communicated at the time of its formation; but because of the coherence of the whole temporal Ego system it will be in communication with later strata also."

"In his major work, Principles of Gestalt Psychology, Koffka (1935) devoted over 60 pages to the hypothesized role of ego in memory... Koffka distinguished between self and ego, the former being defined as a central subsystem of ego, but his analysis of memory was given in terms of the broader system, ego."

"It is... most gratifying to my soul that, after spending a large part of my life in other universities, I can be linked in the University of Oxford with the prince of geometers Dr John Wallis as colleague and the most scholarly Dr as successor."

"[T]he easier, simpler and less composite these theories are, the more they will be consonant not only with what has already been observed... but with what is yet to be observed, and with the very machine of the world which was constructed by the supreme creator with the greatest simplicity."

"Although in every age there have been those who cultivated astronomy, either by... observations... or by theories and systems made up according to the state of understanding of any period, or by a talent for exposition, yet the lucubrations of all these astronomers do not reveal the ways of the heaven any more than they reveal the skill and experience of their progenitors in geometrical matters."

"[I]t is by the help of geometry that all the arts necessary for improving life,.. as geography,.. rules of navigation,.. determining of times... [etc.], have been carried to such an incredible pinnacle of distinction."

"[W]ithin the memory of ourselves and... our fathers, philosophers began to extend the limits of geometry in order to found the kingdom of astronomy. This they have carried out... with such success that now no one can be received into astronomical citizenship who is not a visiting citizen in the most abstruse geometry and has not arisen from the patrician, that is the geometrical, family of philosophers."

"In the past many very base Remus’s leapt over the walls of the astronomical city, but now the geometers have so fortified it with a ditch and a rampart that the portals of the sun receive those whom impartial Appollonius has loved and whom Kepler, Wren, Wallis and Newton have borne to the aetherial regions, and accordingly the profane, that is ungeometrical men, are exiled and depart from the grove and wander away over the whole heaven."

"[W]hat sharpness of mind was employed by John Kepler... when, from there being just five regular solids... he inferred that the number of the planets was six, and by inscription of spheres within these solids and circumscription of spheres around them related the distances and ratios of the orbits. It can scarcely be said with what power of prophecy and by what labours he succeeded in arriving at that great theorem of the elliptical planetary orbits with a common focus at the sun... in such a way that the areas that the radius vector of the planet from the sun traverses are proportional to the times. Nevertheless... so great a man... owned himself unequal to... solving directly the problem of determining for a given time the place of the planet in the elliptical orbit. Here geometry, his goddess-mother, was of no avail... But... he brought forward a conjecture of great use, namely, that the squares of the periodic times are in the same ratio as the cubes of the distances between the planets and the sun. Finally, he discovered a marvellous property of bodies by which in the minimally resisting ether they seek each other and as it were attract. From this he also deduced the tides in a clear but brief discourse in his immortal Commentaries on the star Mars, and was as it were a prophet and a precursor of a great geometer born among the English."

"[G]lory has been reserved to our era and to the English people, who since the instauration of the sciences have made such advances... And passing over the immense labours undergone by the most fruitful astronomers of our people... [H]ow easy and how exact... how geometrical, astronomy has been left to us by that most acute geometer... or astronomer, the Right Reverend Dr Seth sometime Bishop of Salisbury, who while he was among men adorned this chair. How geometrically and acutely he determined the positions and species of the orbit and other related matters, following Kepler and substituting as mean motion the angle at the other focus (which he accordingly called that of the mean motion) in place of the areas to the sun that the radius vector describes and as it were sweeps out. Content with this artifice he did not detain himself over the solution of Kepler’s problem, in which the division of the area of an ellipse in a given ratio by a straight line through a focus is required. But, being a most perspicacious man, he was conscious of what delays arose hence in the construction of tables, and, in order to show the world that astronomy was to be advanced by the help of geometry whatever hypotheses it depended upon, he accomplished the same astronomical problems geometrically from the circular hypothesis."

"After great and fruitful efforts both in the purer geometry and the more intricate and complex physics, the most skilful geometer Sir Christopher Wren, who among other luminaries of the University of Oxford graced this professorship, solved the following problem: To find the law of gravity or centripetal force by which several bodies moved around a common centre of forces are driven, given that the squares of the periodic times are as the cubes of the radii, as was observed by Kepler for the planets moved around the sun. The most renowned Wren found that the required law of gravity was such that the centripetal forces were reciprocally as the squares of the distances from the centre of forces, and that no other law would agree with what was observed."

"After Kepler’s bold and fruitful efforts to advance natural philosophy by the help of geometry, there should have appeared any philosopher and particularly a geometer, namely Descartes, who should leave this one narrow path and try to investigate the causes of things logically, or rather, sophistically. What is to be said of him who while certainly learned in geometry would build his cosmic system (which he valued so highly and of which he boasted so grandiloquently) from vortices, without previously examining whether bodies carried around by a vortex at different distances from the centre would have periodic times whose squares were as the cubes of the distances from the centre? But he was intoxicated by easier and less composite laws, and, not applying his geometric ability in the slightest, fell into errors from which we were at length liberated by the aid of geometers."

"[W]e have come into the age where questions that were once cosmographical are being transformed into geometrical problems. For it has now been shown not only that the areas which bodies driven in a circuit describe by the radii drawn to the centre of forces are in immobile planes and proportional to the times, but also conversely that every body moved in this way is impelled by a centripetal force that tends towards the aforesaid point. By this proposition alone the Ptolemaic system is destroyed, for the primary planets by radii drawn to the Earth describe areas in no way proportional to the times, while with the radii drawn to the sun it is established that they run over areas sufficiently proportional to the times."

"Since two or more mutually gravitating bodies describe orbits around a common immobile centre of gravity, and since by common consent there is an immense difference between the quantity of matter in the sun and that in the Earth, it is clear that neither the sun nor, much less, the sun in the company of five planets can revolve around an immobile Earth. Thus is shown not only the falsity but the impossibility of the ."

"Mr Issac Newton in addition to the geometric figure in any orbit of a projectile sought also to find the measure of the (tending to a given centre) of the body borne in that orbit, from whatever cause that force may arise, be it from a deeper mechanical one or from a law imposed by the supreme creator of all things. He inquires geometrically into the law of centripetal force of a body moved in the circumference of a circle with the force tending to a given point either on the circumference or anywhere outside it or inside it, or even infinitely removed. By the same method he seeks the law of centripetal force tending to the centre of a plane nautical spiral (that is one that the radii cut in a given angle) which will drive a body in that spiral. Also the law of centripetal force that would make a body rotate in an ellipse when the centre of the ellipse coincides with the centre of forces. If the ellipse is changed into a hyperbola and the centripetal force into a centrifugal one the same things apply to the hyperbola. Also the resolution of the same problem when the centre of forces coincides with either focus of the ellipse shows that the law of centripetal force is reciprocally in the duplicate ratio of the distance [as the inverse square of the distance]; others had long before shown that this was the one and only law that would satisfy the other phenomenon observed by Kepler in the motion of the planets. These results also apply to the hyperbola and the parabola when the centre of forces is situated in a focus of the conic section."

"[W]ith this one problem... three years ago, after the above was published, Gottfried Leibniz... produced a construction... in terms of his system—not without the blemish of paralogism."

"But... Kepler’s problem was to be resolved, to find the position of a body moved in an elliptical orbit at a given time. As concerns an algebraic resolution... adapted to the construction of tables, we... also have produced a work not... to be ashamed of."

"But, since the law of centripetal force employed by nature is to be discovered from its symptoms, the indisputably elliptical orbit and the sesquialteral ratio of the periodic times and the distances from the centre of forces, the same great Newton solved not only the universal problem of determining the trajectory and the motion in it for any given centripetal force, but also its converse. After this universal problem had been solved the sequel was to find other [quantities] in the geometric figure that are measures of physical qualities; for example, that the periodic times in ellipses are in the sesquiplicate ratio of the transverse axes [the squares of the times are as the cubes of the axes], and as many other things similar to these as possible. Also, for instance, to compare this force, which we experience in the planets, with another given force near to us, namely gravity. But also the new philosophy was to concern itself with movable elliptical orbits, in which the line of apsides either advances or retires. Also, for instance, a more exact [theory] of rectilinear descent and of the motion of pendulous bodies than the Huygenian one, since that supposes the centre to be infinitely removed. Therefore also, other s different from the common one and variously devised according as the pendulum oscillates inside or outside the surface of the Earth. And let that suffice for this problem. But also on account of the mutual actions of bodies moving around a centre the orbits usually turn out to be deformed, and also an investigation of these actions and of the deformity arising from them, whence arise many minor inequalities of the planets, such as the motion of the nodes, the variation of maximum latitude, and other things in the moon."

"Although the celestial spaces in which the planets move around are... unresisting, yet media are considered in which the moving body is resisted, and this resistance is considered in conjunction with gravitation or centripetal force. Among others, this problem now presents itself for solution: Given the direction, the law of centripetal force, and the law of resistance, to construct the path of the projectile. In particular, if the law of centripetal force is posited as reciprocally duplicate to the distances and the resistance is in the duplicate ratio of the speed, then indeed the problem of Galileo will be solved, as is fitting."

"Descartes's cosmic system, which he jokingly called his fable of the world, is shown to be a fable indeed."

"[T]he motion of comets is found to be not at all dissimilar to the motion of the planets, depending on the same principles and undergoing continual revolutions. But, since these planets move in ellipses in which the distance of the foci has a great ratio to the transverse axis, and that major axis is immense, their periodic times greatly exceed the periodic times of the common planets, for they are in the sesquialteral ratio [3:2] of the transverse axes [their squares are as the cubes of the axes]. Thus Descartes’s rectilinear cometary trajectory, which he filched from Kepler, collapses, and many things about comets in his fable of the world may be added, which almost two thousand years ago had been shown to be impossible by Lucretius. Such is the free motion in full spaces, to say nothing of the fact that in his system the motion is from time to time against the motion of the vortex. But, in place of so eccentric ellipses whose more remote parts cannot be observed because the comet is not visible there, parabolae may be assumed in calculation, and many things useful for improving astronomy and physics and advancing them further may thus be deduced with the help of the more intricate geometry."

"The phenomena prove that the tail of a comet is vapour from its head which, when the comet is greatly heated in the neighbourhood of the sun in perihelion, continually rises up and moves away into the regions opposite the sun."

"[T]he increases of optics, geography and other sciences... are also due to the application of the more intricate geometry to philosophical matters. Hence has been made clear the curvature of the rays of light in the same medium; hence the causes of extraordinary s have been laid bare; hence, given one surface of a lens, another may be determined by means of which a ray entering the lens with given position will have a given position in emerging from it; hence in geography the excess of the normal diameters of the axis over the axis is found, and also the al figure of any planet; hence the varying gravity of the same body in different parts of the Earth, and the varying length of an isochronous pendulum according to the latitude of its place, and then indeed, after the due correction, the construction of a universal measure and of a perfect ."

"[F]or the further improvement of natural philosophy a more advanced geometry must be found. ...[T]he reason why physical science has here been brought to a level that is the envy of foreigners is the knowledge... of some more universal geometry. Of what part of this the learned owe to this renowned university and in it to the prince of geometers I shall not speak lest I appear to be fawning, which in a mathematician would be unseemly."

"My design in publishing this Book, was, that the Celestial Physics, which the most sagacious Kepler had got the scent of, but the Prince of Geometers Sir Isaac Newton, brought to such a pitch as surprises all the World, might, by my... illustrating, become easier to such as are desirous of being acquainted with Philosophy and Astronomy."

"[T]he Physics, it is all taken out of the above mention'd Authors; but is here intermix'd with Astronomy, in such places as seem'd proper and convenient; the Geometry to be met with in it, I have either borrowed elsewhere, and quoted... or delivered it Lemmatrically."

"[T]hose who are less vers'd in the more abstruse parts of Geometry, or less concerned about the Physical parts, may pass over, and only read the Astronomy separately and distinct..."

"The Celestial Physics, or Physical Astronomy, is not only the first in dignity of all inquiries into Nature... but the first in order, because it is the easiest."

"For the Sun and Planets are separated from one another by so immense a distance, as renders them incapable of exerting most of those forces whereby all Bodies act upon one another; so that they have no other force left them whereby they can affect one another, but the single force of universal Gravity: Whereas in the production of several Phænomena, that are observ'd upon our Earth, innumerable other forces are exerted, such as are very hard to be distinguish'd from one another; which notwithstanding, if not accurately done, in vain do we attempt Nature, and make any inquiry into it."

"Upon this account it is, that every Problem in the Terrestrial Physics is very operose and perplex'd, on the contrary, in the Celestial Physics, much more easy and simple; tho' even the latter has its difficulties, arising from the different distances and magnitudes of the Celestial Bodies, For the Fix'd Stars are so vastly distant asunder, that they have no mutual action upon each other, observable by us..."

"[T]hose persons seem to apply their thoughts but to a very indifferent purpose in the study of Nature, that overlook this part of Astronomy, from whence the principal and most simple Laws of Nature are to be learn'd."

"[T]he Physics delivered in the following Work... was both known and diligently cultivated by the most ancient Philosophers. ...[T]he true System of the World, approv'd of Pythagoras, and others among the Ancients..."

"[W]e do still tread in the steps of the Ancients in this Physical Astronomy; inasmuch as they knew that the Celestial Bodies gravitated towards each other, and were retain'd in their Orbits by the force of Gravity; and were also apprized of the Law of this Gravity."

"[I]f we look back to the first Rise of Astronomy... we shall find nothing better approv'd of, nothing more universally entertained among the several Sects of Philosophers, than this notion of the Gravity of the Celestial Bodies."

"That saying is well known, so often used by Anaxagoras, and his Scholars, Achelaus and Euripides, Namely, "That the Sun and Stars were fiery or red-hot Stones and Golden Clods." Of the same mind also were Democritus, Metrodorus, and Diogenes..."

"[A]s we are told by Democritus these notions about the Sun and Moon are not to be ascrib'd to Anaxagoras as their original... He had them from his Master Anaximenes whose Opinion... was, that the Stars were of a fiery nature and substance, that there were also mingled with them certain Earthly Bodies... [H]e plainly means, Planets of a terrestrial nature, performing their revolutions in the System of every Fix'd Star."

"These notions Anaximenes received from Anaximander, Anaximander from Thales himself, who was the Head and Founder of the Ionic Philosophy; and spread this opinion of the Gravity of the Fix'd Stars among his Sect."

"[A]fterwards it diffused it self thro' the Italic Philosophy, the followers of which taught, that each Star was a World in the infinite Æthereal Space, containing Earth, Air and Æther; and that the Moon, not only was like our Earth, but inhabited by Animals of a larger size, and furnish'd with Plants of a more beautiful appearance."

"Nor were they so absurd in their conceptions about Gravity, as to think that it was done by the virtue of any point within the Earth, or of a Center, to which all heavy Bodies placed any where tended; but they thought it was done by the power of the whole Matter in the Terrestrial Globe attracting all things to it self: And as the power of the is composed of the powers of the several parts combin'd together, so they believed that the Gravity towards the whole Earth, resulted from the Gravity towards each single part of it. ...[T]hey believ'd there was a Gravity towards the Moon and Sun, acting in the same manner as it does towards the Earth; and that each Planet, like a Stone, whirl'd in a sling, was kept in its Orbit by the same principle, and for the same reason revolving always about us."

"From some things mention'd by Diogenes Laertius concerning Plato, which also are obscurely hinted at in his Timæus I am apt to believe with Galileo that the divine Philosopher suppos'd the Mundane Bodies, when they were first formed, were moved with a Rectilinear motion (by the means of Gravity,) but after that they had arrived to some determined places, they began to revolve by degrees in a Curve, the Rectilinear Motion being chang'd into a Curvilinear one."

"'Tis from this Doctrine of Gravity, that all Bodies gravitate mutually to one another, 'tis by this that Lucretius, taught by Epicurus and Democritus, labours to prove, that the Universe has no Center or lowest Place, but that there is an infinity of Worlds like ours in the immense Space. His Argument... If the nature of things were bounded any where, then the outmost Bodies, since they have no other beyond them, towards which they may be made to tend by the force of Gravity, wou'd not stand in an Equilibrio, but make towards the inner and lower Bodies, being necessarily inclin'd that way by their Gravity, and therefore having made towards one another, during an infinite space of time, would have long ago met, and lye in the middle of the whole, as in the lowest place."

"Lucretius and those whom he followed, believ'd that all Bodies did Gravitate towards the Matter placed around them, and that every single Body was carried by the more prevailing Gravity, towards that region where there was most Matter."

"[S]o also they were not unacquainted with the Law and Proportion which the action of Gravity observ'd according to the different Masses and Distances. For that Gravity is proportional to the Quantity of Matter in the heavy Body, Lucretius does sufficiently declare, as also that what we call light Bodies, don't ascend of their own accord, but by the action of a force underneath them, impelling them upwards, just as a piece of Wood is in Water; and further, that all Bodies, as well the heavy as the light, do descend in vacuo, with an equal celerity."

"[T]he famous Theorem about the proportion whereby Gravity decreases in receding from the Sun, was not unknown at least to Pythagoras. This indeed seems to be that which he and his followers would signify to us by the Harmony of the Spheres: That is, they feign'd Apollo playing upon an Harp of seven Strings, by which Symbol, as it is abundantly evident from Pliny, Macrobius and , they meant the Sun in Conjunction with the seven Planets, for they made him the leader of that Septenary Chorus, and Moderator of Nature; and thought that by his Attractive force he acted upon the Planets (and called it Jupiter's Prison, because it is by this Force that he retains and keeps them in their Orbits, from flying off in Right Lines) in the Harmonical ratio of their Distances. For the forces, whereby equal tensions act upon Strings of different lengths (being equal in other respects) are reciprocally as the Squares of the lengths of the Strings."

"For Pythagoras as he was passing by a Smith's Shop, took occasion to observe, that the Sounds the Hammers made, were more accute or grave in proportion to the weights of the Hammers; afterwards stretching Sheeps Guts, and fastning various Weights to them, he learn'd that here likewise the Sounds were proportional to the Weights. Having satisfy'd himself of this, he investigated the Numbers, according to which Consonant Sounds were generated. Whether the whole of this Story be true, or but a Fable, 'tis certain Pythagoras found out the true ratio between the sound of Strings and the Weights fasten'd to them."

"[U]niversally, the Weights which generate all Tones in Strings, are reciprocally as the Squares of the lengths of Strings of equal Tension, producing the same sound in any Musical Instrument."

"Pythagoras... applied the proportion he had thus found by experiments, to the Heavens, and from thence learn'd the Harmony of the Spheres. And, by comparing these Weights with the Weights of the Planets, and the intervals of the Tones, produced by the Weights, with the interval of the Spheres; and lastly, the lengths of Strings with the Distances of the Planets from the Center of the Orbs; he understood, as it were by the Harmony of the Heavens, that the Gravity of the Planets towards the Sun (according to whose measures the Planets move) were reciprocally as the Squares of their Distances from the Sun."

"[T]he Opinion of the Ancients concerning Gravity... they were perswaded that Gravity was not an affection of Terrestrial Bodies only, but of the Celestial also, that all Bodies gravitate towards one another; and that the Planets are retained in their Orbits by the force of Gravity, and lastly, that the Gravity of the Planets towards the Sun are reciprocally as the Squares of their Distances from it. What the industry and skill of the Moderns have added to these inventions of the Ancients, the following Pages do declare at large."

"Gregory, David, nephew of preceeding James Gregory (1638-1675)], was born at Aberdeen in 1661, and died 1708, Savilian professor of Astronomy at Oxford. He published, 1. 'Exercitatio Geometrica de Dimensione Figurarum,' 4to. Edinb. 1684. 2. 'Catoptricæ et Diopticræ Sphericæ Elementa,' 8vo. Oxon. 1695. 3. 'Astronomæ Physicæ et Geometriæ Elementa,' fol. Oxon. 1702, and 4to. Genev. 1726. 4. 'Treatise of Practical Geometry,' originally written in Latin, and of which a translation by Mr. MacLaurin, was published in 8vo. 1745, and again in 1751. 5. 'A Short Treatise of the Nature of Arithmetic and Logarithms,' printed at the end of Keill's translation of Commandine's Euclid, besides several papers in the 'Philosophical Transactions.'"

"David Gregory’s manuscript ‘Isaaci Neutoni methodus fluxionum’ is the first systematic presentation of the method of fluxions written by somebody other than Newton. It was penned in 1694, when Gregory was the Savilian Professor of Astronomy at Oxford. ...[I]t sheds light upon Gregory’s views on how Newton’s mathematical innovations related to... other mathematicians, both British and Continental. This paper... proves that Newton, far from being—as often stated—wholly isolated and reluctant to publish the method of fluxions, belonged to a network of mathematicians who were made aware of his discoveries. Second, it shows that Gregory—very much as other Scottish mathematicians such as George Cheyne and John Craig—received Newton’s fluxional method within a tradition that was independent from England and that, before getting in touch with Newton, had assimilated elements of the calculi developed on the Continent."

"The Science of Astronomy which is as much esteem'd and admir'd for its great and manifold uses for the Service of Mankind, as it is delightful and entertaining to the more curious and contemplative, has in all ages been cultivated and improv'd, by Men the most eminent for their parts and learnings; and is now brought... to the utmost degree of perfection, and that chiefly by the Superior Genius and Industry of those of our own Nation. But since nothing considerable therein, has been as yet writ in our own Language... I could not oblige my Country-Men more than in publishing an English Edition of the most valuable and finish'd piece of Astronomy now extant. It is generally reckoned to be a Book that contains not only all the Discoveries and Philosophical Sentiments of the great Kepler, and the various Hypotheses of the most noted Astronomers before and since his Time; but is chiefly valued by the best Judges, for the large and instructive Comments... on the Writings of the illustrious Sir Isaac Newton, as well as on the Several Astronomical Dissertations of the Sagacious Dr. Halley, which the Reader will find here every where interspers'd. ...I shall, in a very little time, present... another Volume, containing correct Astronomical Tables, for the ready computing of the Planets Places, Eclipses, &c. all done by a Person of known ability, from the true Theory of Gravity, deliver'd in this Book: For it was by no means judged proper that I should annex to so intire a piece as this, any imperfect Tables, drawn from a different Principle from what is here established, such it seems all those as yet published are."

"After I had taken holy orders, I returned to the college, and went on with my own studies there, particularly the mathematicks, and the Cartesian philosophy; which was alone in vogue with us at that time. But it was not long before I, with immense Pains, but no assistance, set myself, with the utmost zeal, to the Study of Sir Isaac Newtons wonderful discoveries in his ', one or two of which Lectures I had heard... read in the publick Schools, though I understood them not at all... Being indeed greatly excited thereto by a Paper of Dr. Gregory’s when he was Professor in Scotland; wherein he had given the most prodigious Commendations to that work, as not only right in all things, but in a manner the Effect of a plainly divine genius, and had already caused several of his Scholars to keep Acts, as we call them, upon several branches of the Newtonian Philosophy; while we at Cambridge, poor Wretches, were ignominiously studying the fictitious Hypotheses of the Cartesian, which Sir Isaac Newton had also himself done formerly, as I have heard him say."

"It was also during my being chaplain to bishop More, that I published my first work, intitled, A New Theory of the Earth, from its Original to the Consummation of all Things, wherein the Creation of the World in Six Days, the Universal Deluge, and the General Conflagration, as laid down in the Holy Scriptures, are Shewn to be perfectly agreeable to Reason and Phylosophy. ...In the New Theory, fifth edition... Lem. xxxii. Schol. instead of its latter part, read, as Sir Isaac Newton also did in his latter writing of this nature, I mean the Theory of the Moon, publimed by Dr. Gregory, and has suppofed the sun's parallax, 10″; and from this hypothesis I made these and the following calculations. Which therefore cannot be far from truth..."

"I will add another thing which I also had from Dr. Bentley himself. Mr. Halley was then thought of for successor, to be in a mathematick professorship at Oxford; and bishop Stillingfleet was desired to recommend him at court; but hearing that he was a sceptick, and a banterer of religion, he scrupled to be concern'd; 'till his chaplain, Mr. Bentley, should talk with him about it; which he did. But Mr. Halley was so sincere in his infidelity, that he would not so much as pretend to believe the christian religion, tho' he thereby was likely to lose a professorship; which he did accordingly; and it was then given to Dr. Gregory: Yet was Mr. Halley afterwards chosen into the like professorship there, without any pretence to the belief of christianity. Nor was there any enquiry made about my successor Mr. Sandersons christianity, even when the university of Cambridge had just banished me for believing and examining it so throughly, that I hazarded all I had in the world for it."

"Alas! that Scottish maid should sing The combat where her lover fell! That Scottish Bard should wake the string, The triumph of our foes to tell!"

"In Vishnu’s lotus-foot alone Confide! His power shall ne’er decay, When tumbles every earthly throne, And mortal glory fades away."

"Ye watchful sprites, who make e'en man your care, And sure more gladly hover o'er the fair, Who grave on adamant all changeless things, The smiles of courtiers and the frowns of kings! Say to what softer texture ye impart The quick resolves of woman's trusting heart; Joys of a moment, wishes of an hour, The short eternity of Passion's power, Breathed in vain oaths that pledge with generous zeal E'en more of fondness than they e'er shall feel, Light fleeting vows, that never reach above, And all the guileless changefulness of love! Is summer's leaf the record? Does it last Till withering autumn blot it with his blast? Or, frailer still, to fade ere ocean's ebb,— Graved on some filmy insect's thinnest web, Some day-fly's wing that dies and ne'er has slept: Lives the light vow scarce longer than 'tis kept? Ah, call not perfidy her fickle choice! Ah, find not falsehood in an angel's voice! True to one word, and constant to one aim, Let man's hard soul be stubborn as his frame; But leave sweet woman's form and mind at will To bend and vary and be graceful still."

"The study and practice of medicine seems to me to be divided into two tolerably distinct branches,—Preventive and Curative; and whereas the second of these will, I think, be left by all wise people to those who, by years of study of books and , have mastered some at least of its difficulties, the former should, in my opinion, form an integral part of every system of education which has any pretension to completeness."

"... Whatever shortcomings or errors may be recorded against , it should ever be remembered in her favour that she took the initiative before all the world in opening a college career to women, and in welcoming, on equal terms, all students, of whatever race or hue. This double glory shall surely be hers in the memories of men when much on which she now prides herself more may be forgotten."

"... On Sunday morning the College-chapel is used by the whole community of , and the students may attend there or elsewhere as they please; but in the afternoon the service is specially designed for them, and their presence is required."

"The third College which gives instruction and academic degrees to both sexes is situated at , in Ohio, and being founded in 1852 by a sect calling themselves emphatically "Christians," was by the named , in allusion to Acts xi. 26. The characteristic feature distinguishing this College from the others already named, is the aim of its founders to establish it on a strictly unsectarian basis."

"It is a very comfortable faith to hold that "whatever is, is best," not only in the dispensations of Providence, but in the social order of daily life; but it is a faith which is perhaps best preserved by careful avoidance of too much inquiry into facts."

"... If we go back to primeval times, and try to imagine the first sickness or the first injury suffered by humanity, does one instinctively feel that it must have been the man's business to seek means of healing, to try the virtues of various herbs, or to apply such rude remedies as might occur to one unused to the strange spectacle of human suffering? I think that few would maintain that such ministration would come most naturally to the man and be instinctively avoided by the woman; indeed, I fancy that the presumption would be rather in the other direction. And what is such ministration but the germ of the future profession of medicine?"

"It is clear that in Great Britain at an early period women were commonly found among the irregular practitioners of Medicine; and it is equally clear that their male competitors greatly desired to deprive them of the right to practise."

"Contemporary economic white nationalism is the dynamic form of hatred of what is different for its own sake."

"Race-based negative integration has been a continuous element of the American social bond for large sectors of the citizenry since the founding, but almost always qualified and repudiated with the reminder that “we” are a nation of immigrants. The join between these two features of the American social bond are arguably the foundational contradiction in the idea of America."

"When Erin first rose from the dark-swelling flood, God blessed the green island, he saw it was good. The Emerald of Europe, it sparkled and shone In the ring of this world, the most precious stone."

"Arm of Erin, prove strong, but be gentle as brave, And, uplifted to strike, still be ready to save; Nor one feeling of vengeance presume to defile The cause or the men of the Emerald Isle."

"Men of Erin! awake, and make haste to be blest! Rise! arch of the ocean, and queen of the West!"

"Hapless nation, hapless land, Heap of uncementing sand! Crumbled by a foreign weight, Or by worse, domestic hate!"

"Pure, just, benign; thus filial love would trace The virtues hallowing this narrow space; The Emerald Isle may grant a wider claim, And link the Patriot with his country's name."

"The majority of fishes produce s in enormous numbers, amounting in some cases to several millions, and correlated with this the size of the individual egg has become much reduced. The average diameter of a ean egg may be taken as about 1 . In an egg of this size segmentation of so markedly meroblastic a character would be puzzling except on the hypothesis that the meroblastic condition had arisen in ancestral forms in which the eggs were much larger."

"The general lecture course in is accompanied by laboratory work extending over a hundred hours. In great part this follows the usual lines such as are laid down in and Hurst’s Text-book, but a special feature is made of the study of a valuable series of demonstration specimens. This includes the study, under high-power s, of such organisms as s, , s, and s. Experience has shown that students fully appreciate the privilege of being able to examine such preparations for themselves, and that they take the greatest care not to do damage. Opportunities are also given for seeing Trypanosomes, , e and so on, in the living condition. This demonstration part of the course is regarded as being of special value in arousing and gripping the interest of the student."

"Imperfect as is the , how infinitely more imperfect must necessarily be our knowledge of that record! The largest s, , and other excavations made by man, are in themselves relatively insignificant scratches on the surface of the vast mass of fossil-bearing rocks, but yet how small a fraction of the material obtained in such excavations ever passes under the detailed scrutiny of the palaeontologist."

"He once jokingly referred to the report, published in , of his award of the in 1955 as "a very pleasant obituary notice"."

"Provisional age data now show that between 2000 and 3000 BCE, flow along a presently dried-up course known as the Ghaggur-Hakkra River ceased, probably driven by the weakening monsoon and possibly also because of headwater capture into the adjacent Yamuna and Sutlej Rivers."

"Pompous the boast, and yet a truth it speaks: A Modern Athens—fit for modern Greeks."

"Blogg sneers at ancient birth;—yes, Blogg, we see, Your ears are longer than your pedigree."

"Through regions by wild men and cannibals haunted, Old Dame Ida Pfeiffer goes lone and undaunted; But, bless you, the risk's not so great as it's reckon'd, She's too plain for the first, and too tough for the second."

"Tomkins will clear the land, they say, From every foul abuse: So chimneys in the olden day, Were cleansed by a goose."

"O grant me, Heaven, a middle state, Neither too humble nor too great; More than enough, for nature's ends, With something left to treat my friends."

"Affliction is the wholesome soil of virtue: Where patience, honour, sweet humanity, Calm fortitude, take root, and strongly flourish."

"Who has not known ill fortune, never knew Himself, or his own virtue."

"The human race are sons of sorrow born; And each must have his portion. Vulgar minds Refuse or cranch beneath their load: the brave Bear theirs without repining."

"But when Science, passing beyond its own limits, assumes to take the place of Theology, and sets up its own conception of the Order of Nature as a sufficient account of its Cause, it is invading a province of Thought to which it has no claim, and not unreasonably provokes the hostility of those who ought to be its best friends."

"I am passionate about chemistry and really keen to ensure that opportunities are available to young people from all different backgrounds to become chemists. We need diversity of opinions, different perspectives and the best talent to take the discipline forward into the future."

"My mentors have been incredibly important to me. I trusted them to give me the best advice, whether I had asked for it or not, and they also gave me confidence to take up opportunities I might otherwise have declined. It’s really important that we take the time to do the same for the next generation of chemists."

"I remember more the atmosphere than specific memories — being in the garden and hanging out with both my parents while they were doing things, walking through, smelling the flowers. I was very keen on s from a young age – that very much formed the basis of my love of gardening. Wild collecting dictated what we had in the gardens. On holidays in the Mediterranean, my parents collected plants such as and s – we had them long before they were fashionable. s, too."

"I'm on a mission to get more of us to grow British wild flowers in our gardens. As ever-increasing numbers of these plants vanish from the countryside, our own private spaces become more important – and genuinely useful. Between us, our gardens cover more than a million acres, which far exceeds the total area of all our nature reserves. We need to think of our gardens as little reservoirs in which British biodiversity can survive. In time, it will spread out from there, but if we make our gardens wild flower hot spots, then at least we know things aren't disappearing at quite such a rate. There's plenty of evidence from the work of etymologists such as Dr (see her brilliant book Wildlife Of A Garden: A Thirty-Year Study) that gardens can provide rich s, with flowers the key part of that ."

"'Madame Alfred Carrière' This was the first rose planted by Vita at in 1930, before the deeds were even signed, and it quickly covered most of the south face of the South Cottage and in Vita and Harold's day was left to 'render invisible' most of the front of the house and trained around her bedroom window to pour scent into the house for months at a stretch. It is still there, and now has a huge trunk wider than my husband's thigh."

"We moved to Perch Hill in 1994 from London and found a rather ramshackle ex- with a lot of concrete, corrugated iron and a small garden with a on the south side of the house. Since then, we converted the farm into an organic 90 acres, putting in new hedges on old lines, trying to encourage wildflowers into the meadows and introducing our own herd of and a flock or Romney-cross sheep."

"Let’s start in the garden. This year cookery writers are as happy digging and planting as slicing and braising. Sarah Raven is a great gardener and, on the evidence of her latest book, Sarah Raven’s Garden Cookbook (, £35), she’s a good cook too. This is a book for a lifetime of cooking: there are more than 400 recipes based on fruit and vegetables. It is not vegetarian — she uses fish and meat too — but vegetables and fruit are to the fore. Raven’s recipes are simple, practical and enticing, and there isn’t one I don’t want to cook. The book is divided into two-month chunks and full of suggestions (snip off pea tendrils for salads, or leave a few beetroot in the ground to produce an early spring salad leaf) and tips on the most tasty varieties to grow. Her ten recipes will sort out an impending green avalanche, and she has five good marrow recipes for when the wretched plants have triumphed."

"Yes! I could find some comfort in the thought Of being scourged, Were there but hope that this defiling sin Which mars my life, and taints my heart within Could so be purged, And I might live, in virtue of the rod, The life in God."

"O to be like my Lord! Yet must I be Mine own self too, And to the nature He bestowed on me Be frankly true.The olive fruits not as the clustering vine; Nor may we get Scent of the rose or lily from woodbine, Or violet."