The Preface. 



the blame of having calumniated them , and will as readily 

 make them amends. But if they neither will , nor can $ tbe n 

 ,their owne verdiff cleareth me : and it is not [b much I 9 

 as they, that makethisprofefsion of the jhallownefle of their 

 detfrine. Andto this purpofe I have, often heard the lamenta- 

 tions of divers , as great volts as any that converfe in the 

 Schooles^ complaining ef this defett . But info great an evi- 

 dence of the effetf,f roof es are fuperfluoit*. 



Wherefore Iwitt leave this (ubjecJ , to declare what I have 

 here dcfigned, and gone about, towards the remedy of this in- 

 convenience. Which # , that whereat in the Schooles, there is 

 A loo fe method, or rather none-, but that it is law full, by the li- 

 berty of a Commentator^ to handle anyqueflion , in any place 

 (which it the caufe of the flight neffe of their deftrwt^and can 

 never be the way to anyfcience tr certitude) I have taken mj 

 beginnings from the commonefl things that are in nature : 

 namely y from the notions of Quantity, and its firft differences: 

 which are the moft fimplc, and radicall notions that are , and 

 in which all the reft are to be grounded. From them I endea- 

 vour by immediate compoftion of them ^ and derivation from 

 them, to bring dovne my difcourfe t9 the Elements, which are 

 the primary and moftfimple bodies in nature . From thefe , / 

 proceed to compounded bodies ^firftjo thofe that are catted mi- 

 xed-, and t hen , to living bsdies : declaring in common the pro- 

 prieties and operations that belong unto them. And by occafton- 

 as Ipaffe along , / light here and there on thofe operations^ 

 which jeemmoft admirable in nature, to /hew how they arc 

 performed-, or at the leaft, how they may be performed : that 

 though Imiffe in particular oftheinduftry of nature , yet I 

 may nevertheleffe hit my intent; which #, to trace out a way^ 

 how thefe^andfuch like operations may be cffetfcd by jncxafl 

 diftofition, and ordering (though intricate] of quantitative 

 ad corptreall parts : and to jhewythat they oblige us not to 



recurrc 



