The PREFACE. 
And this was undertaken in profecution of the Defign which the, ROY- 
AL SOCIETY has propos d to it elf. For the Members of the Affembly ha- 
ving before their eys {0 many fatal Jnflances of the errors and fal{hoods,in which 
the gréateft part of mankind has fo long wandred, becaufe they rely d upon the 
firength of bumane Reafon alone, have begun,.anem.to correct all: Hy~ 
,  pothefes by fenfe, as Seamen\ do their dead Reckonings by Coeleftial 
) Obfervations;and to this purpofe it. bas been their principal indeavour toen- 
large ¢o ftrengthen the Senfes by Medicine,and by Juch outward Inftru- 
ments a are proper for their particular works, By this means they find fome 
reafon to. {ufpeti.that thofe effecis of Bodies which have been commonly attri~ 
buted to Qualities, \and thofe confef3d to be, occult, are perform'd by the 
fmall Machines of Nature, which are not to be difcern d without thefe, helps, 
feeming the meer produttsof Motion,Figure,and Magnitude; and that the 
Natural Textures, which fome call the Plaftick faculty, may be made in 
Loonisswhich a greater perfection of Opticks may make difternable by thefeé 
Glaffessfo as now they are no moré puzzled about them,then the vulgar are to 
concerve pow Tapeftry or flowred Stufts are woven. And the ends of all thefe 
Inquiries they intend tobe the Pleafute of Contemplative minids, but above 
allthe eale and difpatch of the labours. of mens hands. They do indeed neg- 
lei no opportunity to. bring all the rare things of Remote Countries within the 
compafs of their knowledge and prattice.But they fill acknoniledg their mot 
ufeful Informations to arife from common things, and from diverfifying 
their moft ordinary operations upon thent. They donot wholly rejett Experi 
ments of meer light. and theory 5 but they principally aim at‘ fuch, whofe 
Applications vill improve and facilitate the prefent way of Manual Artsy. 
And though fome men, who are perbaps taken up about le/3 honourable Em 
ployments, arepleas d to cenfure their proceedings, yet they can bew more 
fruits of their firft three years, wherein they have affembled, then anyother 
Society. in Europe can for. much larger fpace of time.’Tis true, fuch un-\ 
dertakings as theirs do commonly, meet with finallincour agement 5 becaufe 
men are generally rather taken with the plaufible and difcurfive, then the 
real, and the folid part of Philolophy’; yet by the good fortuneof their “infitue 
tion,in an Age of all others the moft inquifitive,they have been affifted by ' 
contribution and prefence of very many of the chief Nobility and Gentry, 
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