Genre:

Miscellaneous

Subjects:

Scientific Practitioners, Invention, Serendipity, Religion

    'The Hermes, or Mercury, of the Egyptians, surnamed Trismegistus, or Three Illustrious, who was, according to Sir Isaac Newton, the secretary of Osiris, is reported to have been the inventor of music'. Details the circumstances under which this is supposed to have occurred. Observes: 'There is something beautiful in this allegory which leads us into a conception of the energetic powers of the human mind in the early ages of the world, thus directed to discovery of the capabilities of nature by the finger of Omnipotence in the form of accident'.