CHAP. 111.] BRIGHT PROSPECTS FOR SCIENCE. 367 



spread over Britain, Spain, Italy, France, and many other 

 countries ; the exhaustion oi all that can be invented or said 

 in religious controversies, 3 which have so long diverted many 

 of the best geniuses ii-om the study of other arts ; the un 

 common, learning of his present Britannic maiesty, about 

 whom, as about a phoenix, the fine geniuses flock irom all 

 quarters ; and lastly, the inseparable property ot time, which 

 is daily to disclose truth : when all these things, I say, are 

 considered by us, we cannot but be raised into a persuasion 

 that this third period of learning may iar exceed the two 

 former of the Greeks and Romans, provided only that men 

 would well and prudently understand their own powers and 

 the delects thereof ; receive from each other the lamps oi in 

 vention, and not the firebrands of contradiction ; and esteem 

 the search after truth as a certain noble enterprise, not a 

 thing of delight or ornament, and bestow their wealth and 

 magnificence upon matters of real worth and excellence, not 

 upon such as are vulgar and obvious. As to my own labours, 

 if any one shall please himself or others in reprehending 

 them, let him do it to the full, provided he observe the 

 ancient request, and weigh and consider what he says 

 &quot;Verbera, sed audi.&quot; b And certainly the appeal is just, 

 though the thing perhaps may not require it, from men s first 

 thoughts to their second, and from the present age to pos 

 terity. 



We come, lastly, to that science which the two former 

 periods of time were not blessed with ; viz., sacred and in 

 spired theology : the sabbath of all our labours and peregri 

 nations. 



This is spoken like one who was versed in ecclesiastical history, and 

 polemical divinity ; for scarce any religious dispute is now raised, that 

 has not been previously contested : but many have found the art, by 

 heat and warmth, to revive old doctrines, opinions, and heresies, and 

 pass them upon the crowd lor new ; rekindling the firebrands of their 

 ancestors, as if religious controversies were to be entailed upon mar- 

 kind, and descend b om one generation to another. Ed. 



k Themistocles to Eury blades. Plut. Reg. et Iinper. Apop 



