In attempting to recount the most distinctly marked periods and gradations of the development of cosmical contemplation, we have in the last section endeavoured to depict the epoch, in which one hemisphere of the globe first became known to the cultivated nations inhabiting the other. The epoch of the most extensive discoveries upon the surface of our planet was immediately succeeded by man's first taking possession of a considerable part of the celestial spaces by the telescope. The application of a newly formed organ, of an instrument of space-penetrating power, called forth a new world of ideas. Now began a brilliant age of astronomy and mathematics; and in the latter the long series of profound investigators, leading to the “all-transforming” Leonard Euler, the year of whose birth (1707) is so near the year of Jacob Bernouilli's death.

A few names may suffice to recal the giant strides with which the human mind advanced in the 17th century, less from any outward incitements than from its own independent energies, and especially in the development of mathematical thought. The laws that regulate the fall of bodies, and the planetary motions, were recognised; the pressure of the atmosphere, the propagation of light, and its refraction and polarisation, were investigated. Mathematico-physical science was created, and established on firm foundations.