THE FIFTH PART 

 OF THE GREAT INSTAURATION. 



PRECURSORS ; OR, ANTICIPATIONS OF THE SECOND 

 PHILOSOPHY. 



THAT person, in our judgment, showed at once both his 

 patriotism and his discretion, who when he was asked, 

 &quot; whether he had given to his fellow citizens the best code 

 of laws,&quot; replied, &quot; the best which they could bear.&quot; And 

 certainly those who are not satisfied with merely thinking 

 rightly (which is little better indeed than dreaming rightly, 

 if they do not labour to realize and effectuate the object of 

 their meditations) will pursue not what may be abstractedly 

 the best, but the best of such things as appear most likely 

 to be approved. We, however, do not feel ourselves privi- 

 1 edged, notwithstanding our great affection for the human 

 commonwealth, our common country, to adopt this legis- 

 latorial principle of selection : for we have no authority 

 arbitrarily to prescribe laws to man s intellect, or the gene 

 ral nature of things. It is our office, as faithful secretaries, 

 to receive and note down such as have been enacted by the 

 voice of nature herself; and our trustiness must stand ac 

 quitted, whether they are accepted, or by the suffrage of 

 general opinion rejected. Still we do not abandon the hope, 

 that, in times yet to come, individuals may arise who will 

 both be able to comprehend and digest the choicest of those 

 things, and solicitous also to carry them to perfection ; and, 

 with this confidence, we will never by God s help desist 

 (so long as we live) from directing our attention thither 

 ward, and opening their fountains and uses, and investi 

 gating the lines of the roads leading to them. 



Yet, anxious as we are with respect to subjects of general 

 interest and common concern, in aspiring to the greater, we 

 do not condemn the inferior, for those are frequently at a 

 distance, while these are at hand and around us, nor though 

 we offer (as we think) more valuable things, do we there 

 fore put our veto upon things received and ancient, or seek 



