! ELEMENTS ADAM BLACK, 27. NORTH BRIDGE, EDINBURGH; AND LONGMAN, REES, ORME, BROWN, & GREEN, LONDON. MDCCCXXX. TO THE REV. PATRICK MACVICAR, D. D. DUNDEE. MY DEAR FATHER, THE pleasure with which I am able to dedicate this Volume to you, is the best evidence to me that it is not unworthy of being laid before the Public. For, if my scientific researches had terminated in opinions less sacred and ennobling than those which I learned from you in those years when creation as known to me was made up of home and heaven, as I should have felt that to prefix my Father's name to my Work had been a violence which filial affection could not have excused, so I should have concluded that my philosophical opinions had better remained unknown. I cannot but fear, however, that the following pages are too pretending to be received by men of fixed opinion, without opposition, even though they were true. It is not therefore as an attempt to honour you, that I beg your acceptance of this Volume; but rather because it cannot be displeasing to you to learn, that, after many years devoted to the observation of phenomena, and to anxious inquiry into causes, the results which I esteem most highly, are but echoes of the voice of paternal affection. JOHN GIBSON MACVICAR. |