PREFACE. 



xliii 



&quot; tain, that whoever will not attend to matters 

 &quot; because they are too minute or trifling, shall 

 &quot; never obtain command or rule over nature.&quot; 

 And again, &quot; he who cannot contract the sight of 

 &quot; his mind as well as disperse and dilate it, wanteth 

 &quot; a great faculty : for certainly this maybe averred 

 &quot; for truth, that they be not the highest instances, that 

 &quot; give the best and surest information. This is not 

 &quot; unaptly expressed in the tale, so common, of the 

 &quot; philosopher, who while he gazed upward to the 

 &quot; stars fell into the water ; for if he had looked 

 &quot; down, he might have seen the stars in the water, 

 &quot; but looking up to heaven he could not see the 

 &quot; water in the stars. In like manner it often comes 

 a to pass that small and mean things conduce more 

 &quot; to the discovery of great matters, than great 

 &quot; things to the discovery of small matters ; and 

 &quot; therefore Aristotle notes well, that the nature of 

 &quot; every thing is best seen in its smallest portions. 

 &quot; For that cause he inquires the nature of a com- 

 &quot; monwealth, first in a family and the simple conju- 

 &quot; gations of society, man and wife ; parents and 

 &quot; children ; master and servant, which are in every 

 &quot; cottage. So likewise the nature of this great city 

 &quot; of the world, and the policy thereof, must be 

 &quot; sought in every first concordances and least por- 

 &quot; tions of things. So we see that secret of nature 

 &quot; (esteemed one of the great mysteries) of the 

 &quot; turning of iron touched with a loadstone towards 

 &quot; the poles, was found out in needles of iron, not in 

 &quot; bars of iron.&quot; 



