Page:Repository of Arts, Series 1, Volume 01, 1809, January-June.djvu/23

Rh chemistry has introduced in the arts of turning, brewing, distilling, bleaching, dying, in the manufacture of glass and porcelain, &c. shew its importance and utility in the arts of civilized life.

From the extensive application of chemical science, those who have not considered the objects which it embraces, will be enabled to judge of the importance or this branch of knowledge to every individual.

But, however much one may be interested in observing and admiring the beneficial influence of this science on the arts and manufactures, if we extend our views, and consider chemistry as a science or subject of philosophical investigation, it will command a greater share of our admiration and study; for, perhaps, there is no branch of knowledge better calculated to promote and encourage that generous and ardent love of truth, which confers dignity and superiority on those who successfully pursue it; and it is surely no small recommendation to the study of this science, that while we store the mind with interesting truths, we add something to the stock of human knowledge, which is perhaps immediately applicable to the most important purposes of life. It is thus that the value of any science may fairly be estimated; namely, in proportion as it interests our understanding, as it enlarges our resources, augments our industry, our commerce, and our power.

With regard to the history of chemistry, it is not necessary here to trace the principles of this science to remote periods of antiquity. Man indeed could not exist long without some knowledge of chemical processes; and as he improved in civilization, this knowledge must also have improved or become extended.

Tubalcain, who is mentioned in the Sacred Scriptures as a worker in metal, and who is supposed to have given rise to the fabulous story of Vulcan in ancient mythology, is considered by some as the first chemist whose name has been transmitted to the present time; and altho’ the working of metals, the kindling of fires, the baking of bread, the burning of clay into pottery, the processes of the vintage, and many other operations which owe their invention to the immediate wants of mankind, and which are absolutely chemical, must have been coeval with the earliest state of society; yet the mere knowledge and practice of these arts do not deserve to be dignified with the name of a science.

A carpenter may erect a piece of machinery arranged and constructed exactly similar to what he has seen, without the knowledge of a single principle of architecture; but the man of science, who can neither handle the axe nor the chisel, observes, accounts, and estimates the power and operation of the moving parts, and ascertains precisely the effects of the whole machine: and is it not more plausible to suppose that a science, so much depending on the civilization of man, and the experience of ages, could not have been cultivated as a science in such a remote period? Nor will it afford us much instruction to enquire whether Moses, who is said to have been skilled in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and who burnt the golden calf: whether Cleopatra, who is said to have dissolved a pearl; or whether Noah, who made wine from his grapes, understood chemistry or not: but as it C2