22 THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE WORK. 



no longer molest learning. For as it has been well ob 

 served, that the tales, superstitions, and trash which nurses 

 instil into children, seriously corrupt their minds, so are 

 we careful and anxious whilst managing and watching over 

 the infancy, as it were, of philosophy committed to the 

 charge of natural history, that it should not from the first 

 become habituated to any absurdity. In every new and 

 rather delicate experiment, although to us it may appear 

 sure and satisfactory, we yet publish the method we em 

 ployed, that, by the discovery of every attendant circum 

 stance, men may perceive the possibly latent and inherent 

 errors, and be roused to proofs of a more certain and exact 

 nature if such there be. Lastly, we intersperse the whole 

 with advice, doubts, and cautions, casting out and restrain 

 ing as it were all phantoms by a sacred ceremony and ex 

 orcism. 



Finally, since we have learnt how much experience and 

 history distract the powers of the human mind, and how 

 difficult it is (especially for young or prejudiced intellects) 

 to become at the first acquainted with nature, we frequently 

 add some observations of our own, by way of showing the 

 first tendency, as it were, and inclination or aspect of 

 history towards philosophy ; thus assuring mankind that 

 they will not always be detained in the ocean of history, 

 and also preparing for the time when we shall come 

 to the work of the understanding. And by such a 

 natural history, as we are describing, we think that safe 

 and convenient access is opened to nature, and solid and 

 ready matter furnished to the understanding. 



But after furnishing the understanding with the most 

 surest helps and precautions, and having completed, by a 

 rigorous levy, a complete host of divine works, nothing re 

 mains to be done but to attack Philosophy herself. In a 

 matter so arduous and doubtful, however, a few reflections 

 must necessarily be here inserted, partly for instruction 

 and partly for present use. 



The first of these is, that we should offer some examples 

 of our method and course of investigation and discovery, 

 as exhibited in particular subjects ; preferring the most 

 dignified subjects of our inquiry, and such as differ the 

 most from each other, so that in every branch we may have 

 an example. Nor do we speak of those examples, which 

 are added to particular precepts and rules by way of illus 

 tration (for we have furnished them abundantly in the 

 second part of our work), but we mean actual types and 



