"The relations of space were dealt with in like manner, the geometrical properties being associated with such physical and metaphysical notions as vague thought and lively feeling could anyhow connect with them. We may consider, as an example of this, Plato's opinion concerning the particles of the four elements. He gave to each kind of particle one of the five regular solids, about which, the geometrical speculations of himself and his pupils had been employed. The particles of fire were pyramids, because they are sharp, and tend upwards; those of earth are cubes, because they are stable, and fill space; the particles of air are octahedral, as most nearly resembling those of fire; those of water are icositetrahedron, as most nearly spherical. The dodecahedron is the figure of the element of the heavens, and shows its influence in other things, as in the twelve signs of the zodiac. In such examples we see how loosely space and number are combined or confounded by these mystical visionaries."
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History of the Inductive Sciences
History of the Inductive Sciences from the Earliest Times to the Present (1837) is one of William Whewell's two best-known works. It is his attempt to map and systematize the development of the sciences through time. Second and third editions were published in 1847 and in 1859. The last edition was published in two volumes, and the first two editions were published in three volumes.
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