28 THE GREAT INSTAURATION 



Besides this, we reject, with a particular mark, all those 

 boasted and received falsehoods, which by a strange neg 

 lect have prevailed for so many ages, that they may no 

 longer molest the sciences. For as the idle tales of nurses 

 do really corrupt the minds of children, we cannot too care 

 fully guard the infancy of philosophy from all vanity and 

 superstition. And when any new or more curious experi 

 ment is offered, though it may seem to us certain and well 

 founded; yet we expressly add the manner wherein it was 

 made; that, after it shall be understood how things appear 

 to us, men may beware of any error adhering to them, and 

 search after more infallible proofs. We, likewise, all along 

 interpose our directions, scruples and cautions; and relig 

 iously guard against phantoms and illusions. 



Lastly, having well observed how far experiments and 

 history distract the mind; and how difficult it is, especially 

 for tender or prejudiced persons, to converse with nature 

 from the beginning, we shall continually subjoin our obser 

 vations, as so many first glances of natural history at philoso 

 phy; and this to give mankind some earnest, that they shall 

 not be kept perpetually floating upon the waves of history; 

 and that when they come to the work of the understanding, 

 and the explanation of nature, they may find all things in 

 greater readiness. This will conclude the third part. 



After the understanding has been thus aided and forti 

 fied, we shall be prepared to enter upon philosophy itself. 

 But in so difficult a task, there are certain things to be ob 

 served, as well for instruction as for present use. The first 

 is to propose examples of inquiry and investigation, accord 

 ing to our own method, in certain subjects of the noblest 

 kind, but greatly differing from each other, that a specimen 

 may be had of every sort. By these examples we mean not 

 illustrations of rules and precepts, but perfect models, which 

 will exemplify the second part of this work, and represent, 

 as it were, to the eye, the whole progress of the mind, arid 

 the continued structure and order of invention, in the most 

 chosen subjects, after the same manner as globes and ma- 



