782 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



rules and methods of proceeding and operating with this so collected 

 and qualified Supellex," remained in embryo. Hooke, like Bacon, set 

 out with a classification of the errors incidental to humanity in its 

 actual condition ; but his mode of rectifying them was a more patient 

 and practical process than the "expurgation of the intellect," preached 

 by the philosophic Chancellor. The senses are to be helped, he tells 

 us, by skillfully constructed instruments, whereby their sphere of ac- 

 tion may be enlarged, and their untutored impressions brought to the 

 test of exact measurement and rigid calculation. The report of one 

 sense must be corrected by comparison with that of the others, until 

 " sensation is reduced to a standard," and the mind is gradually informed 

 with true notions of " things, as they are part of, and actors or patients 

 in the universe, not only as they have this or that peculiar relation or 

 influence on our own senses or selves." 



The next step in the " Preparation " consisted in the compilation 

 of a " Philosophical History," comprising 



A brief and plain account of a great store of choice and significant natural and 

 artificial operations, actions, and effects, ranged in a convenient order, and inter- 

 woven here and there with some short hints of accidental remarks or theories, 

 of corresponding or disagreeing received opinions, of doubts and queries, and the 

 like; and, indeed, until this repository be pretty well stored with choice and 

 sound materials, the work of raising new axioms or theories is not to be attempt- 

 ed, lest beginning without materials the whole design be given over in the 

 middle.* 



The matter of such a history, he says further, is no less than the 

 world ; " for there is no body or operation in the universe that is not 

 some way or other to be taken notice of in this great work." And the 

 programme which he proceeds to lay down in no way belies his prom- 

 ise. Fire, air, earth, and water, light and darkness, heat and cold, 

 gravity and levity, all the " prime sensible qualities " of nature, find 

 each its place in this stupendous magazine of knowledge. From ether 

 to anthracite, from a man to a mite or a mushroom, from dreams and 

 influences to arts and sciences, from the starry firmament to the coster- 

 monger's cart or the cobbler's stall, no substance, quality, or accident 

 is excluded. No natural process, no commercial product, but has its 

 separate "History." The despised handicraftsman is to yield up his 

 obscure secrets as well as the scientific artisan. A Dollond or a Stein- 

 heil is not more stimulating to the catholic curiosity of the natural 

 historian than a Quince, a Bottom, or a Snug. Yet all this encyclo- 

 pedic mass of information, infinite in its subject, indefinite in its ex- 

 tent, expansive in its nature, Hooke tells us he " has very good reason 

 to believe may be contained in much fewer words than the writings of 

 divers single authors ! " f This would, indeed, have been to imprison 

 the liberated genius of knowledge within narrower limits than those 



* " Posthumous Works," p. 18. f Ibid., p. 21. 



