The authors of new discoveries may surely expect to be reckoned among
those whose writings are secure of veneration: yet it often happens that
the general reception of a doctrine obscures the books in which it was
delivered. When any tenet is generally received and adopted as an
incontrovertible principle, we seldom look back to the arguments upon
which it was first established, or can bear that tediousness of
deduction, and multiplicity of evidence, by which its author was forced
to reconcile it to prejudice, and fortify it in the weakness of novelty
against obstinacy and envy.
It is well known how much of our philosophy is derived from Boyle's
discovery of the qualities of the air; yet of those who now adopt or
enlarge his theory, very few have read the detail of his experiments.
His name is, indeed, reverenced; but his works are neglected; we are
contented to know, that he conquered his opponents, without inquiring
what cavils were produced against him, or by what proofs they were
confuted.
Some writers apply themselves to studies boundless and inexhaustible, as
experiments in natural philosophy. These are always lost in successive
compilations, as new advances are made, and former observations become
more familiar.
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