RO ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [dOOK IL 



Nor matters it, if tliirigs are jiut in order lor producing 

 eftects, whether it be done by human means or otherwise. 

 Gold is sometimes purged by the fire, and sometimes found 

 naturally pure : the rainbow is produced after a natural way, 

 in a cloud above ; or made artilicially, by the sprinkling of 

 water below. As natvu'e, therefore, governs all things by 

 means, — 1. of her general course ; 2. her excursion ; and 3. by 

 means of human assistance ; these three parts must be received 

 into natural history, as in some measure they are by Pliny. 



The first of these parts, the history of creatures, is extant 

 in tolerable perfection ; but the two others, the history of 

 monsters and the history of arts, may be noted as deficient. 

 For I find no competent collection of the works of nature 

 digressing from the ordinary course of generations, produc- 

 tions, and motions ; whether they be singularities of place 

 and region, or strange events of time and chance ; effects of 

 unknown properties, or instances of exceptions to general 

 rules. We have indeed many books of fabulous experiments, 

 secrets, and frivolous impostures, for pleasure and strangeness ; 

 but a substantial and well-purged collection of heteroclitos, 

 or irregularities of nature, carefully examined and desci;ibed, 

 especially with a due rejection of fable and popular error, is 

 wantinij : for as thincfs now stand, if false facts in nature be 

 once on foot, through the neglect of examination, the coun- 

 tenance of antiquity, and the use made of them in discourse, 

 they are scarce ever retracted. 



The design of such a work, of which we have a precedent 

 in Aristotle, is not to content curious and vain minds, but — 

 1. to correct the depravity of axioms and opinions, founded 

 upon common and familiar examples ; and 2. to show the 

 wonders of nature, which give the shortest passage to the 

 wonders of art : for by careddly tracing nature in her 

 wanderings, we may be enabled to lead or compel her to the 

 name again. Nor would we in this history of wonders have 

 superstitious narrations of sorceries, witchcrafts, dreams, 

 divinations, &c. totally excluded, where there is fall evidence 

 of the fact ; because it is not yet known in wliat cases, and 

 now far effects attributed to superstition, depend upon 

 natural causes. And, therefore, though the practice of such 

 things is to be condemned ; yet the consideration of them 

 may afford light, not only in judging criminak liit xn 



