2 ESSAYS anp OBSERVATIONS 
nomenon muft be accommodated to that 
principle, and every oppofite fact, however 
obftinate, muft go for nothing. And thus 
we endeavour to mould nature to our with, 
inftead of defiring to know nature in her ge- 
huine figure. 
We fee, then, that in fcience, as well as in 
action, appetite and inclination generally gain 
the afcendant. Even in natural philofophy, 
theory was introduced before experiment, 
and every philofopher urged his own notions, 
without regard to truth or reality. This 
produced a mafs of undigefted and contradi- 
tory theory; which at length could not fail 
to bring on the difcovery, that the whole was 
little better than fancy and chimera. The 
difcovery had a remarkable good effect ; 
which was, firft to make us doubt of every 
thiag, and then to make us fearch after 
truth in the more painful road of indudtion. 
By this means, a greater number of im- 
portant truths have been brought to light 
within a century or two, than before that 
time from the beginning of the world. 
But tho’ our only fure guides to truth are 
facts and experiments, it is however expedi- 
ent to keep the end in view. Fats and ex- 
periments 
