FIRST EDITION. xxin 



and encouragement from reflections like those by 

 which their great forerunner prepared himself for his 

 endeavours ; by recollecting that they are aiming 

 to advance the best interests and privileges of man ; 

 and that they may expect all the best and wisest of 

 men to join them in their aspirations and to aid them 

 in their labours. 



" Concerning ourselves we speak not ; but as 

 touching the matter which we have in hand, this we 

 ask ; that men deem it not to be the setting up of 

 an Opinion, but the performing of a Work ; and 

 that they receive this as a certainty ; that we are 

 not laying the foundations of any sect or doctrine, 

 but of the profit and dignity of mankind : Further- 

 more, that being well disposed to what shall advan- 

 tage themselves, and putting off factions and preju- 

 dices, they take common counsel with us, to the end 

 that being by these our aids and appliances freed and 

 defended from wanderings and impediments, they 

 may lend their hands also to the labours which 

 remain to be performed : And yet, further, that 

 they be of good hope ; neither feign and imagine 

 to themselves this our Eeform as something of infi- 

 nite dimension and beyond the grasp of mortal man, 

 when, in truth, it is, of infinite errour, the end and 

 true limit ; and is by no means unmindful of the 

 condition of mortality and humanity, not confiding 

 that such a thing can be carried to its perfect close 

 in the space of one single age, but assigning it as a 

 task to a succession of generations." 



Instaur. Mag. Prcef. ad fin. 



