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24 [Doc. 4.
GENERAL BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES.
with his later works, although they treat on different subjects,
leads us to think so.
He looked upon the universe at large, in the same light
as he looked upon its parts, which can be examined with
greater certainty. He saw that all is ruled simultaneously in
a certain order, and according to fixed laws. He paid parti
cular attention to those parts of this great system which can
be examined mathematically.
He, therefore, imagined that the all-wise Creator had
brought every thing, even in its hidden parts, into a certain
mutual agreement; and this agreement he sought to bring out
in his capacity of mathematician and physicist, by progressing
from the less to the greater, and from that which may be
distinguished by the naked eye to that which requires the
aid of the magnifying glass. And, finally, he developed for
himself a complete system , based upon a certain mechanism , and
supported by logic ; a system which is so carefully constructed,
that there is much in it, in many respects, for the learned to
reflect upon. As to the unlettered, they had better not meddle
with it.
According to this system he explained everything which,
either by experience or by sound reasoning, could become an
object of thought.
If we do not accept the whole, there is at least much that
is good to be gleaned from it. But he went still further.
He desired to combine this system with the doctrine of
salvation.
With this we find him occupied during most of the time,
after he had published his Opera Philosophica et Mineralia.
He spent a great part of his later years abroad; for after
the year 1736 he made eight different journeys into foreign
countries, mostly to England and Holland; but during the
journey he commenced in the year 1736, and which continued
to 1740, he visited also France and Italy. His principal ob
ject in these journeys was the printing of new works.
I cannot help being filled with astonishment, in reflect
ing upon his extraordinary industry; for besides numerous
treatises, and among them the great work I have already
mentioned, he was the author of the following different works:
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