This Book is a Compilation of Several Books and Parts of Books: On the Nature of Things (Book V) by Lucretius On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres by Nicholas Copernicus Novum Organum (Book I) by Francis Bacon Discourse on Method by René Descartes The Positive Philosophy by Auguste Comte Recapitulation and Conclusion (from The […]

Acknowledgment and thanks for the use of the following selections are herewith tendered to the Open Court Publishing Company, La Salle, Ill., for “Senses of Insects,” by Auguste Forel; to G.P. Putnam’s Sons, New York, for “Prolongation of Human Life” and “Nature of Man,” by Elie Metchnikoff; and to the De La More Press, London, […]

Acknowledgment and thanks for permission to use the following selections are herewith tendered to Houghton, Mifflin & Company, Boston, for “Looking Backward,” by Edward Bellamy; to Ginn & Company, Boston, for the International School of Peace, for “The Future of War,” by Jean Bloch; and to Doubleday, Page & Company, New York, for “Progress and […]

Apocrypha is a Greek word, signifying “secret” or “hidden,” but in the sixteenth century it came to be applied to a list of books contained in the Septuagint, or Greek translation of the Old Testament, but not in the Palestinian, or Hebrew Canon. Hence, by theological or bibliographic purists, these books were not regarded as […]

Acknowledgment and thanks for permitting the use of the selection by H.A. Taine on “Modern Régime,” appearing in this volume, are hereby tendered to Madame Taine-Paul-Dubois, of Menthon St. Bernard, France, and Henry Holt & Co., of New York. Samuel Eliot, a historian and educator, was born in Boston in 1821, graduated at Harvard in […]

Acknowledgment and thanks for permitting the use of the following selections–“The Dawn of Civilisation,” “The Struggle of the Nations” and “The Passing of the Empires,” by Gaston Maspero–which appear in this volume, are hereby tendered to the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, of London, England.Island in Gaston Camille Charles Maspero, born on June 23, 1846, […]

The Journals of Lewis and Clark By Meriwether Lewis and and William Clark, 1804-1806 Note: These Journals are from May 14, 1804, the day the expedition left the Mississippi River, to September 26, 1806, a day or two after they arrived back in St. Louis. It includes all possible Journal entries of Lewis and Clark. […]

The present book is intended, as far as possible, to give an exact insight into the theory of Relativity to those readers who, from a general scientific and philosophical point of view, are interested in the theory, but who are not conversant with the mathematical apparatus of theoretical physics. The work presumes a standard of […]

Physica, Physics by Aristotle 384 BC – 322 BC. When the objects of an inquiry, in any department, have principles, conditions, or elements, it is through acquaintance with these that knowledge, that is to say scientific knowledge, is attained. For we do not think that we know a thing until we are acquainted with its […]

De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium – On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres by Nicolaus Copernicus. I can readily imagine, Holy Father, that as soon as some people hear that in this volume, which I have written about the revolutions of the spheres of the universe, I ascribe certain motions to the terrestrial globe, they will […]