274 NEW ATLANTIS 



' Then after divers meetings find consults of our whole 

 number, to consider of the former labours and collec- 

 tions, we have three that take care out of them to direct 

 new experiments, of a higher light, more penetrating 

 into Natiu'e than the former. These we call Lamps. 



' We have three others that do execute the experi- 

 ments so directed, and report them. These we call 

 Inoculators. 



' Lastly, we have three that raise the former dis- 

 coveries by experiments into greater observations, 

 axioms, and aphorisms. These we call Interpreters of 

 Nature. 



' We have also, as you must think, novices and ap- 

 prentices, that the succession of the former employed 

 men do not fail ; besides a great number of servants 

 and attendants, men and women. And this we do 

 also : we have consultations, which of the inventions 

 and experiences which we have discovered shall be 

 published, and which not : and take all an oath of 

 secrecy for the concealing of those which we think fit 

 to keep secret : though some of those we do reveal 

 sometimes to the State, and some not. 



' For our ordinances and rites, we have two very long 

 and fair galleries : in one of these we place patterns 

 and samples of all manner of the more rare and excellent 

 inventions : in the other we place the statues of all 

 principal inventors. There we have the statue of your 

 Columbus, that discovered the West Indies : also the 

 inventor of ships : yoiir Monk that was the inventor 

 of ordnance and of gunpowder : the inventor of music : 

 the inventor of letters : the inventor of printing : 

 the inventor of observations of astronomy : the in- 

 ventor of works in metal : the inventor of glass : the 

 inventor of silk of the worm : the inventor of wine : 

 the inventor of com and bread^: the inventor of sugars : 

 and all these by more certain tradition than you have. 

 Then we have divers inventors of our own, of excellent 

 works, which since you have not seen, it were too long 

 to make descriptions of them ; and besides, in the right 

 understanding of those descriptions you might easily 



