PREFAC35. 3 



kliings of all. And hence the sciences seem to have their 

 Hercules' Pillars, which bound the desires and hopes ot'>( 

 mankind. 



But as a false imagination of plenty is among the 

 principal causes of want, and as too great a confidence in 

 things present leads to a neglect of the future, it is 

 necessary we should here admonish mankind that they do 

 not too highly value or extol either the number or useful- 

 ness of the things hitherto discovered ; for, by closely in- 

 specting the multiplicity of books upon arts and sciences, we 

 find them to contain numberless repetitions of the same 

 things in point of invention, but differing indeed as to the 

 manner of treatment ; so that the real discoveries, though at 

 the first view they may appear numerous, prove upon exa- 

 mination but few. And as to the point of usefulness, the 

 philosophy we principally received from the Greeks must be 

 acknowledged puerile, or rather ^tolkatiye^th an generative — 

 as being fruitful in controversies, but barren of effects. 



The fable of Scylla seems a civil representation of the 

 present condition of knowledge; for she exhibited the coun- 

 tenance and expression of a virgin, whilst barking monsters 

 encircled her womb. Even thus the sciences have their 

 specious and plausible generalities; but when we descend to 

 particulars, which, like the organs of generation, should i)ro- 

 iuce fruits and effects, then spring up loud altercations 

 and controversies, which terminate in barren sterility.^ 

 And had this not been a lifeless kind of philosophy, it 1 

 were scarce possible it should have made so little progress jl 

 in so many ages, insomuch, that not only positions now fre- 

 quently remain positions still, but questions remain ques 

 tions, rather riveted and cherished than determined by 

 disputes ; philosophy thus coming down to us in the persons 

 of master and scholar, instead of inventor and improver. 

 In the mechanic arts tlie case is otherwise — these com- 

 monly advancing towards perfection in a course of daily 

 improvement, from ^ rough unpolished state, sometimes 

 prejudicial to the first inventors, whilst philosophy and the 

 intellectual sciences are, like statues, celebrated and adored, 

 but never adva.nced ; nay, they sometimes appear most per- 

 fect in the original author, and afterwards degenerate. For 

 since men have gone over in crowds to the opinion of their 



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