2,o4 onthe study (if ilatural L'utory, -^ug. 21. 

 gacity with which he was endowed above other men'l 

 I keep, fs id he,) my subject constantly before me, 

 and wait patiently till the first dawnings open slow- 

 ly by little and little into a full and clear Hght." 



What an encouragement is here to the attentive 

 and inquisitive mind, and how much ought we to 

 rub up our faculties in youth that they grow not 

 rusty. 



Lord Bacon, " that prophet of science which Nexv^ 

 ton was born to reveal,^'' reprehended those who upon 

 a weak conceit of sobriety, or ill applied moderati- 

 on, thought or maintained that one can search too 

 far or be too well studied in the book of God's 

 ■word, or in the book of God's works. Rather (said 

 he,) let men awake themselves and chearfully en- 

 deavour and pursue an endlefs progrefs and profici- 

 ency in both ; only let them beware lest they apply 

 knowledge to pride, not to chanty ; to ostentation, not 

 to tne. *' That a superficial taste of learning and 

 philosophy may perchance incline the mind to A^he* 

 ism or irreligion ; but a full draught thereof bring- 

 eth the soul back again to religion : " That in the 

 entrance of philosophy in the history of nature, when 

 tlie second causes most obvious to the senses offer 

 themselves to the mind, we are apt to cleave unto 

 them, and dwell too much upon them, so as to for- 

 get- what is superior and intelligent in nature. But 

 when we pafs farther, and behold the dependency, 

 continuation, and confederacy of causes, and the 

 tvorks of providence, then, according to the allego- 

 1-y of the poets, we easily believe that the highest 

 liirk of nature's chtiin must needs be tied to the 



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