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John Herschel

John Herschel Books

Baronet Herschel

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“Almost all the greatest discoveries in astronomy have resulted from what we have elsewhere termed Residual Phenomena, of a qualitative or numerical kind, of such portions of the numerical or quantitative results of observation as remain outstanding and unaccounted for, after subducting and allowing for all that would result from the strict application of known principles.”

KindScienceResultsKnownPrinciplesKnowledgeDiscoveryAstronomyObservationAllowingApplicationPortionsElsewhereStrictOutstandingQualitativeResidual
Author:John Herschel
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“The end of the eighteenth and the commencement of the nineteenth century are remarkable for the small amount of scientific movement going on in this country, especially in its more exact departments. Mathematics were at the last gasp, and astronomy nearly so; I mean in those members of its frame which depend upon precise measurement and systematic calculation. The chilling torpor of routine had begun to spread itself over all those branches of Science which wanted the excitement of experimental research.”

MeanEndsCountryWantedLastsScienceCenturyMovementDependsAmountMembersResearchAccountsMathematicsSpreadAstronomyExcitementBranchesDepartmentRemarkableRoutinePreciseChillMeasurementCalculationsSystematicNineteenth CenturySmall Amounts
Author:John Herschel
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“First, In showing in how to avoid attempting impossibilities. Second, In securing us from important mistakes in attempting what is, in itself possible, by means either inadequate or actually opposed to the end in view. Thirdly, In enabling us to accomplish our ends in the easiest, shortest, most economical, and most effectual manner. Fourth, In inducing us to attempt, and enabling us to accomplish, object which, but for such knowledge, we should never have thought of understanding. On the ways that a knowledge of the order of nature can be of use.”

KnowsWayShouldFirstsMeanImportantEndsUseScienceOrderUnderstandingViewsMistakeKnowledgeObjectsAccomplishFourthImpossibilityAttemptingInadequateEnabling
Author:John Herschel
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“It can hardly be pressed forcibly enough on the attention of the student of nature, that there is scarcely any natural phenomenon which can be fully and completely explained, in all its circumstances, without a union of several, perhaps of all, the sciences.”

EnoughScienceNatureNaturalAttentionStudentsCircumstancesUnionsPhenomenonNatural Phenomena
Book:Preliminary discourse on the study of natural philosophy
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“Music and dancing (the more the pity) have become so closely associated with ideas of riot and debauchery among the less cultivated classes, that a taste for them, for their own sakes, can hardly be said to exist, and before they can be recommended as innocent or safe amusements, a very great change of ideas must take place.”

SaidIdeasClassTasteSafeDancingSakeInnocentPityAmusementRiotGreat ChangeDebauchery
Book:Essays from the Edinburgh and Quarterly Reviews
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“...Nature builds up her refined and invisible architecture, with a delicacy eluding our conception, yet with a symmetry and beauty which we are never weary of admiring.”

NatureArchitectureInvisibleConceptionWearyRefinedDelicacySymmetryAdmiring
Book:The Origins of Modern Philosophy of Science, 1830-1914: Preliminary discourse on the study of natural philosophy
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“Were I to pray for a taste which should stand me in good stead under every variety of circumstances and be a source of happiness and a cheerfulness to me during life and a shield against its ills, however things might go amiss and the world frown upon me, it would be a taste for reading.”

WorldShouldBookMightWould BeReadingSourcePrayingCircumstancesTasteVarietyReading BooksShieldsCheerfulnessSource Of Happiness
Book:Essays from the Edinburgh and Quarterly Reviews
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