g THE GFvEAt INSTAUnATION. 



cious than the course hitlierto pursued, as tending to some . 

 issue; whereas all liitherto done with regard to the sciencesi 

 is vertiginous, or in the way of perpetual rotation. 



Nor is he ignorant that he stands alone in an experiment 

 almost too bold and astonishing to obtain credit, yet he 

 thought it not right to desert either the cause or himself,, 

 but to boldly enter on the way and explore the only path 

 which is pervious to the human mind. For it is wiser tc 

 engage in an undertaking that admits of some termination, 

 than to involve oneself in perpetual exertion and anxiety 

 about what is interminable. The ways of contemplation, 

 indeed, nearly correspond to two roads in nature, one of 

 which, steep and rugged at the commencement, terminates 

 in a plain ; the other, at first view smooth and easy, leads 

 only to huge rocks and precipices. Uncertain, however, 

 whether these reflections would occur to another, and ob- 

 serving that he had never met any person disposed to ajiply 

 his mind to similar thoughts, he determined to publish what- 

 soever he found time to perfect. Nor is this the haste of 

 ambition, but anxiety, that if he should die there might 

 remain behind him some outline and determination of the 

 matter his mind had embraced, as well as some mark of his 

 sincere and earnest affection to promote the happiness of 

 mankind. 



ATITHOIl'S PREFACE. 



Of the state of learning — That it is neither prosperous nof greatly 

 advanced, and that a way must be opened to the human nnderstand- 

 mg entirely distinct from that known to our predecessors, and 

 ditfierer.t aids procured, that the mind may exercise her power ovef 

 the nature of things. 



It appears to me that men know neither their acquire- 

 ments nor their powers, bat fancy their possessions greater 

 and their faculties less than they are; whence, either valuing 

 the received arts above measure, they look out no farther ; 

 or else despising themselves too much, they exercise their 

 talents upon lio;hter matters, without attempting the capital 



