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| <h1 align="center">THE PREFACE</h1> |
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| <p><font size="5"> <font size="4">It is the great prerogative of Mankind above |
| other Creatures, that we are not only able to behold the works of Nature, |
| or barely to sustein our lives by them, but we have also the power of considering, |
| comparing, altering, assisting, and improving them to various uses. </font></font></p> |
| <p><font size="4">And as this is the peculiar priviledge of humane Nature |
| in general, so is it capable of being so far advanced by the helps of Art, |
| and Experience, as to make some Men excel others in their Observations, |
| and Deductions, almost as much as they do Beasts. </font></p> |
| <p><font size="4">By the addition of such artificial Instruments and methods, |
| there may be, in some manner, a reparation made for the mischiefs, and imperfection, |
| mankind has drawn upon itself, by negligence, and intemperance, and a wilful |
| and superstitious deserting the Prescripts and Rules of Nature, whereby |
| every man, both from a deriv'd corruption, innate and born with him, and |
| from his breeding and converse with men, is very subject to slip into all |
| sorts of errors. </font></p> |
| <p><font size="4">The only way which now remains for us to recover some degree |
| of those former perfections, seems to be, by rectifying the operations of |
| the Sense, the Memory, and Reason, since upon the evidence, the strength, |
| the integrity, and the right correspondence of all these, all the light, |
| by which our actions are to be guided, is to be renewed, and all our command |
| over things is to be establisht.</font></p> |
| <p><font size="4"> It is therefore most worthy of our consideration, to recollect |
| their several defects, that so we may the better understand how to supply |
| them, and by what assistances we may inlarge their power, and secure them |
| in performing their particular duties.</font></p> |
| <p><font size="4">As for the actions of our Senses, we cannot but observe |
| them to be in many particulars much outdone by those of other Creatures, |
| and when at best, to be far short of the perfection they seem capable of |
| : And these infirmities of the Senses arise from a double cause, either |
| from the disproportion of the Object to the Organ, whereby an infinite number |
| of things can never enter into them, or else from error in the Perception, |
| that many things, which come within their reach, are not received in a right |
| manner. </font></p> |
| <p><font size="4">The like frailties are to be found in the Memory; we often |
| let many things slip away from us, which deserve to be retain'd; and of |
| those which we treasure up, a great part is either frivolous or false ; |
| and if good, and substantial, either in tract of time obliterated, or at |
| best so overwhelmed and buried under more frothy notions, that when there |
| is need of them, they are in vain sought for. </font></p> |
| <p><font size="4">The two main foundations being so deceivable, it is no wonder, |
| that all the succeeding works which we build upon them, of arguing, concluding, |
| defining, judging, and all the other degrees of Reason, are lyable to the |
| same imperfection, being, at best, either vain, or uncertain: So that the |
| errors of the understanding are answerable to the two other, being defective |
| both in the quantity and goodness of its knowledge; for the limits, to which |
| our thoughts are confind, are small in respect of the vast extent of Nature |
| it self; some parts of it are too large to be comprehended, and some too |
| little to be perceived. </font></p> |
| <p><font size="4">And from thence it must follow, that not having a full sensation |
| of the Object, we must be very lame and imperfect in our conceptions about |
| it, and in all the propositions which we build upon it; hence we often take |
| the shadow of things for the substance, small appearances for good similitudes, |
| similitudes for definitions; and even many of those, which we think to be |
| the most solid definitions, are rather expressions of our own misguided |
| apprehensions then of the true nature of the things themselves. </font></p> |
| <p><font size="4">The effects of these imperfections are manifested in different |
| ways, according to the temper and disposition of the several minds of men, |
| some they incline to gross ignorance and stupidity, and others to a presumptuous |
| imposing on other mens Opinions, and a confident dogmatizing on matters, |
| whereof there is no assurance to be given. </font></p> |
| <p><font size="4">Thus all the uncertainty, and mistakes of humane actions, |
| proceed either from the narrowness and wandring of our Senses, from the |
| slipperiness or delusion of our Memory, from the confinement or rashness |
| of our Understanding, so that 'tis no wonder, that our power over natural |
| causes and effects is so slowly improvd, seeing we are not only to contend |
| with the obscurity and difficulty of the things whereon we work and think, |
| but even the forces of our own minds conspire to betray us. </font></p> |
| <p><font size="4">These being the dangers in the process of humane Reason, |
| the remedies of them all can only proceed from the real, the mechanical, |
| the experimental Philosophy, which has this advantage over the Philosophy |
| of discourse and disputation, that whereas that chiefly aims at the subtilty |
| of its Deductions and Conclusions, without much regard to the first groundwork, |
| which ought to be well laid on the Sense and Memory ; so this intends the |
| right ordering of them all, and the making them serviceable to each other. |
| </font></p> |
| <p><font size="4">The first thing to be undertaken in this weighty work, is |
| a watchfulness over the failings and an inlargement of the dominion, of |
| the Senses. To which end it is requisite, first, That there should be a |
| scrupulous choice, and a strict examination, of the reality, constancy, |
| and certainty of the Particulars that we admit: This is the first rise whereon |
| truth is to begin, and here the most severe, and most impartial diligence, |
| must be imployed ; the storing up of all, without any regard to evidence |
| or use, will only tend to darkness and confusion. </font></p> |
| <p><font size="4">We must not therefore esteem the riches of our Philosophical |
| treasure by the number only, but chiefly by the weight; the most vulgar |
| Instances are not to be neglected, but above all, the most instructive are |
| to be entertain'd: the footsteps of Nature are to be trac'd, not only in |
| her ordinary course,but when she seems to be put to her shifts, to make |
| many doublings and turnings, and to use some kind of art in indeavouring |
| to avoid our discovery. </font></p> |
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| </blockquote> |
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