Stuk 110 - William Whewell to Richard Jones

3 pp.

Trinity College - WW has got hold of a new science (meteorology) which 'is altogether admirable both for my theology and for my induction...The people have been collecting facts for a very long time - (ever since Noah) and are now just beginning to get a notion of the general laws and proportions in to which the mass is to be resolved. I do not know any subject which is at present in so instructive a condition. Moreover those who pursue it talk excellent philosophia prima as is always the case among people so employed; the wisdom which people utter under the unconscious tutoring of practice is very noticeable in the business of the intellect, as well as of the hands and the heart'. WW is delighted with the progress he is making on his Bridgewater treatise - 'but I begin to have less trust in this feeling, having found that it may delude me; however you shall see what I have done and tell me how far I am right' ['Astronomy and General Physics Considered with Reference to Natural Theology', 1833]. Is RJ at peace or war with the logician?: 'If you will give me illustrations and examples of the ascending method applied to moral sciences we shall have no difficulty in fighting the downward mad people. I have got some additional views but no removal yet of any doubts as to the identity of the scientific method (that is the method of making a science) in physical and moral sciences'.