The term Natural Philosophy was used by Newton, and is still used in British Universities, to denote the investigation of laws in the material world, and the deduction of results not directly observed. Observation, classification, and description of phenomena necessarily precede Natural Philosophy in every department of natural science. The earlier stage is, in some branches, commonly called Natural History; and it might with equal propriety be so called in all others.

Our object is twofold: to give a tolerably complete account of what is now known of Natural Philosophy, in language adapted to the non-mathematical reader; and to furnish, to those who have the privilege which high mathematical acquirements confer, a connected outline of the analytical processes by which the greater part of that knowledge has been extended into regions as yet unexplored by experiment.

We commence with a chapter on Motion, a subject totally independent of the existence of Matter and Force. In this we are naturally led to the consideration of the curvature and tortuosity of curves, the curvature of surfaces, distortions or strains, and various other purely geometrical subjects.

The Laws of Motion, the Law of Gravitation and of Electric and Magnetic Attractions, Hooke's Law, and other fundamental principles derived directly from experiment, lead by mathematical processes to interesting and useful results, for the full testing of which our most delicate experimental methods are as yet totally insufficient.