[608] Ibid. pp. 34–43.
[609] Professor Clifford, in his most interesting lecture on “The First and Last Catastrophe” (Fortnightly Review, April 1875, p. 480, reprint by the Sunday Lecture Society, p. 24), objects that I have erroneously substituted “known laws of nature” for “known laws of conduction of heat.” I quite admit the error, without admitting all the conclusions which Professor Clifford proceeds to draw; but I maintain the paragraph unchanged, in order that it may be discussed in the Preface.
[610] Tait’s Thermodynamics, p. 38. Cambridge Mathematical Journal, vol. iii. p. 174.
[611] Clerk Maxwell’s Theory of Heat, p. 245.
[612] Maxwell’s Theory of Heat, p. 92.
[613] Report of the British Association (1852), Report of Sections, p. 12.
[614] Mr. C. J. Monroe objects that in this statement I do injustice to Comte, who, he thinks, did impress upon his readers the inadequacy of our mental powers compared with the vastness of the subject matter of science. The error of Comte, he holds, was in maintaining that science had been carried about as far as it is worth while to carry it, which is a different matter. In either case, Comte’s position is so untenable that I am content to leave the question undecided.
[615] Fragments of Science, p. 362.
[616] Familiar Lectures on Scientific Subjects, p. 458.
[617] Philosophical Magazine, 3rd Series, vol. xxvi. p. 406.