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count in beholding, at one view, the different opinions of dif- 

 ferent philosophers, as to the nature of things. But there is no 

 room to expect any pure truth from these or the like theories : 

 for as the celestial appearances are solved both upon the sup- 

 positions of Ptolemy and Copernicus; so common experience, 

 and the obvious face of things, may be applied to many differ- 

 ent theories: whilst a much stricter procedure is required in 

 the right discovery of truth. For as Aristotle accurately re- 

 marks, that children, when they first begin to speak, call every 

 woman mother; but afterwards learn to distinguish their 

 own:? so a childish experience calls every philosophy its 

 mother, but when grown up, will easily distinguish its true one. 

 In the mean time, it is proper to read the disagreeing philoso- 

 phies, as so many different glosses of nature. We could there- 

 fore wish there were, with care and judgment, drawn up a work 

 of the ancient philosophies, from the lives of old philosophers, 

 Plutarch's collection of their opinions, the citations of Plato, 

 the confutations of Aristotle, and the scattered relations of other 

 books, whether ecclesiastical or heathen ; as Lactantius, Philo, 

 Philostratus, etc. For such a work is not yet extant ; and we 

 would advise it to be done distinctly ; so that each philosophy 

 be drawn out and continued separate, and not ranged under 

 titles and collections, as Plutarch has done. For every phi- 

 losophy, when entire, supports itself, and its doctrines thus add 

 light and strength to each other; which, if separated, sound 

 strange and harsh. Thus, when we read in Tacitus the acts 

 of Nero or Claudius, clothed with the circumstances of times, 

 persons, and occasions, everything seems plausible ; but when 

 the same are read in Suetonius, distributed under chapters and 

 common-places, and not described in the order of time, they 

 look monstrous, and absolutely incredible. And the case is 

 the same with philosophy proposed entire, and dismembered, 

 or cut into articles. Nor do we exclude from this calendar the 

 modern theories and opinions, as those of Paracelsus, elegantly 

 reduced by Severinus into a body and harmony of philosophy ; 

 or of Telesius, who, in restoring the philosophy of Parmenides, 

 has turned their own weapons against the Peripatetics ; or of 

 Gilbert, who revived the doctrines of Philolaus ; or of any other, 

 provided he be worthy. But as there are whole volumes of 

 these authors extant, we would only have the result drawn out 

 and joined to the rest. And so much for physics and its ap- 

 pendages. 



