6 Dedication 



stand by and bear me out with your testimony, 

 And as this book alone declares the blood to course 

 and revolve by a new route, very different from the 

 ancient and beaten pathway trodden for so many 

 ages, and illustrated by such a host of learned and 

 distinguished men, I was greatly afraid lest I might 

 be charged with presumption did I lay my work 

 before the public at home, or send it beyond seas 

 for impression, unless I had first proposed its subject 

 to you, had confirmed its conclusions by ocular 

 demonstrations in your presence, had replied to your 

 doubts and objections, and secured the assent and 

 support of our distinguished President. For I was 

 most intimately persuaded, that if I could make good 

 my proposition before you and our College, illustrious 

 by its numerous body of learned individuals, I had 

 less to fear from others ; I even ventured to hope 

 that I should have the comfort of finding all that 

 you had granted me in your sheer love of truth, 

 conceded by others who were philosophers like your- 

 selves. For true philosophers, who are only eager 

 for truth and knowledge, never regard themselves as 

 .already so thoroughly informed, but that they welcome 

 further information from whomsoever and from whence- 

 soever it may come ; nor are they so narrow-minded 

 as to imagine any of the arts or sciences transmitted 

 to us by the ancients, in such a state of forwardness 

 or completeness, that nothing is left for the ingenuity 

 and industry of others ; very many, on the contrary, 



