INTERPRETATION OF NATURE. 109 



some divine mandate interdicted to human wisdom, we shall 

 address ourselves to remove this weak and jealous notion, 

 and, relying on simple truth, shall bring the inquiry to this 

 issue, not only to silence the howl of superstition, but to 

 draw religion herself to our side. Again, if the idea should 

 occur to any one, that great and scrupulous delay in expe 

 riments, and the tossing about, so to speak, on a sea of matter 

 and particular facts, which we impose on men, must needs 

 plunge the mind into a very Tartarus of confusion, and cast 

 it down from the serenity and coolness of contemplative 

 wisdom, as from a far diviner state, we shall show and 

 establish, as we trust, for ever, (not without putting to the 

 blush the whole of that school which hesitates not to con 

 cede divine, honours to fantastic reveries utterly bereft of 

 solidity), the difference that prevails between the ideas of 

 the divine and the idols of the human mind. Those also 

 to whom, absorbed in the love of meditation, our frequent 

 mention of works sounds harsh, uncouth, and mechanical, 

 shall be instructed how much they war against the attain 

 ment of their own object of desire, since exact clearness of 

 contemplation, and the invention of works its underplatform, 

 depend upon and are brought to perfection by the same 

 means. If any one should still hold out, conceiving of this 

 absolute regeneration of science from its elements, as a 

 thing interminable, vast, and infinite, we shall demonstrate 

 that, on the contrary, it ought to be regarded as a true 

 boundary and a circumscribing line, marking off the region 

 of error and waste land ; and we shall make it manifest, that 

 a just and full inquisition of particulars, without attempting 

 to embrace individuals, gradations, and vermiculate diffe 

 rences (which is enough for the purposes of science); and 

 then notions and truths, raised from and upon the former, 

 in just method, form something infinitely more defined, 

 tangible, and intelligible, sure of itself, and clear both in 

 what hath been done, and what remains to be accomplished, 

 than floating systems and abstract subtleties, of which there 

 is indeed no end, but a ceaseless gyration, whirl, and chaos. 

 And though some sober censor (as he may think himself), 

 applying to this subject that diffidence of consequences 

 which becomes civil prudence, should consider what we 

 now say to be like men s vain aspirations, an indulgence 

 only of wild hope, and that in truth nothing else will 

 follow from this remodelled state of philosophy, than that 

 new doctrines, perhaps, are substituted, but the resources 

 of mankind not at all augmented, such a one we shall, as 



