122 IXTERPHETAT1OX OE NATURE. 



nientsofthe philosophy of the Greeks, and that not reared, 

 to continue the metaphor, in the woods and wilds of nature, 

 but styed up in the schools and scholastic cells like the 

 domesticated animal. For if you give up the Greeks, and 

 a few Greeks too, what (I pray you) have the Romans or 

 Arabs, which doth not emanate from, and fall back into, 

 the systems of Aristotle, Plato, Hippocrates, Galen, Euclid, 

 and Ptolemy ? Thus you see your entire hopes and fortunes 

 wrapt up in the weak brains and limited souls of about 

 half a dozen mortals. Yet it was not for this that God 

 implanted in you reasonable souls, that you should obse 

 quiously give up to human beings that part of you which 

 he vindicates for himself, implicit faith due only to the 

 things of God. Nor hath he allotted to you the firm 

 and vivid informations of the senses, to contemplate the 

 works of a few men, but his own works, his heaven and 

 earth, celebrating the while his glory in your hearts, and 

 while you lift up a hymn to your Great Author, admitting, 

 if you will, these mortals, (and wherefore should you refuse), 

 to a place beside you in the worshipping quire.&quot; 



W. G. G. 



THE PHENOMENA OF THE UNIVERSE; 



OR, 



NATURAL HISTORY 



FOR THE BASIS OF NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 



PREFACE. 



UPON my taking into consideration the errors that prevail 

 with respect to the true grounds of forming theories and 

 conducting experiments, I felt it my duty myself to remedy 

 these evils, to the best of my ability. There cannot indeed 

 be any thing more meritorious than to lead men to throw 

 off the masks of authorities and their blind admiration of 

 experiments, and to enter into a nearer communion with 

 things themselves and a thorough investigation of them. 



