Whewell, W. History of the Inductive Sciences. 3 vols. London: J. Parker, 1837.

Excerpt:

It is my purpose to write the history of some of the most important of the physical sciences, from the earliest to the most recent periods. I shall thus have to trace some of the most remarkable branches of human knowledge,from their first germ to their growth into a vast and varied assemblage of undisputed truths; from the acute, but fruitless, essays of the early Greek philosophy, to the comprehensive systems, and demonstrated generalizations, which compose such sciences as the Mechanics, Astronomy, and Chemistry, of modern times.

The completeness of historical view which belongs to such a design, consists, not in accumulating all the details of the cultivation of each science, but in marking clearly the larger features of its formation.The historian must endeavour to point out how each of the important advances was made, by which the sciences have reached their present position; and when and by whom each of the valuable truth was obtained, of which the aggregate now constitutes a costly treasure.

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