ft 

 a 



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of Experimental Philo/ophy. 34.3 



fcience, who objeds, in the ftrongefl: terms, 

 againft that reverence for fpeculations, purely 

 intelle6tual, " by means whereof," as he ex- 

 preffes himfclf, '* men have withdrawn too much 

 *' from the contemplations of nature, and the 

 ** obfervations of experience, and have tumbled 

 " up and dov/n in their own reafon and conceits. 

 *' Upon thtfe intelleclualifts, who are notwith- 

 ** ftanding commonly taken for the mod fub- 

 lime and divine philofophers, Heraclitus gave 

 a juft cenfure, faying, men fought truth in their 

 own little worlds, and not in the great and common 

 " -jDorldr * 



But, without depreciating metaphyfics, a 

 fcience which I have always ftudied with de- 

 light, and which invigorates the faculties of 

 the mind, and gives precifion and accuracy 

 to our rational inveftigations by inftructing 

 lis in the nicer difcriminations of truth and 

 faldiood, no doubt can be entertained of 

 the high importance and dignity of natural 

 knowledge. To this we owe the neceflaries, 

 the conveniences, and all the gratifications of 

 our being; -f and in the purfuit of it the under- 

 ilanding is exercifed and improved, and our 



• Bacon on the Advancement of Learning, book I. 

 p. 20, 410. 



f Scietitia et potent i a humana in idem coincidunt. Bacon, 

 Nov. Org. Aph. 111. 



Z d. moral 



