Even the world of philosophy was
not yet ready for this conception, and, so far from seeing the
reasonableness of the explanation, we find Ptolemy arguing against
the rotation of the earth on grounds which careful observations of
the phenomena around him would have shown to be ill-founded.
Physical science, if we can apply that term to an uncoordinated
body of facts, was successfully cultivated from the earliest
times. Something must have been known of the properties of metals,
and the art of extracting them from their ores must have been
practised, from the time that coins and medals were first stamped.
The properties of the most common compounds were discovered by
alchemists in their vain search for the philosopher's stone, but
no actual progress worthy of the name rewarded the practitioners
of the black art.
Perhaps the first approach to a correct method was that of
Archimedes, who by much thinking worked out the law of the lever,
reached the conception of the centre of gravity, and demonstrated
the first principles of hydrostatics. It is remarkable that he did
not extend his researches into the phenomena of motion, whether
spontaneous or produced by force. The stationary condition of the
human intellect is most strikingly illustrated by the fact that
not until the time of Leonardo was any substantial advance made on
his discovery.
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