PREFACE. 



EVER since the days of the LORD CHANCELLOR 

 BACON, natural philosophy hath been more and 

 more cultivated in England. THAT great genius 

 first set out with taking a general survey of all 

 the natural sciences, dividing them into distinct 

 branches, which he enumerated with great exact- 

 ness. He inquired scrupulously into the degree 

 of knowledge already attained to in each, and 

 drew up a list of what still remained to be disco- 

 vered ; this was the scope of his first undertaking. 

 Afterward lie carried his views much farther and 

 shewed the necessity of an experimental philo- 

 sophy, a thing never before thought of. As he 

 was a professed enemy to systems, he considered 

 philosophy, no otherwise than as that part of 

 knowledge which contributes to make men better 

 and happier : he seems to limit it to the knowledge 

 of things useful, recommending above all the study 

 of nature, and shewing that no progress can be 

 made therein, but by collecting facts and conij 

 paring experiments, of which he points out a great 

 number proper to be made. 



