FRANCIS Lord V ERV L A M 



Confulted thus, 



And tlius concluded with Himfelf ; the publicati- 

 on whereof he conceived did concern the pre/ent 

 and future Age. 



^Eingit was mdnifejily h^on>n unto hifff, that hu^ 

 mane underjlanding creates it f elf much trouble 5 

 nor waives an apt andfober ufe of fuch Aids, as 

 are within the Command of Man j from whence 

 infinite ignorance of Things j and from the ig- 

 ftorance of Things , innumerom difad'v ant ages ; his opt' 

 nion was- that with all our indnjiry wejhould endeai/onr, if 

 happily that fame Commerce of the Mind and of Things 

 (than which a greater bleffing can hardly be found on Earth, 

 certainly of earthly Felicities^ might by any means be en- 

 tirely reftored ,- at leaft brought to terms of nearer corre- 

 spondence. But that ErrorS) which ha'z/e prevailed, and 

 would prei/ail for ever, ofle after another, {if the mind 

 were left free to itfelf^ jJjould reBife themfel'ves, either 

 by the inbred power of the underHanding, or by the a/ds and 

 affijiances of Logick^^ there was no hope at all; becaufe that 

 the Frimiti've Notions of Things, which the mind with a 

 too facile andfupine attraBive faculty recei<z/es in , trea- 

 futes up and accumulates, from which all the reft are de- 

 ri't/ed , are %tnfound^ confufed, and rafljly abBraSied from 

 things. The lil^e luxuriant vanity and inconUancy there is in 

 thefecond and fequent Notions ; whence it comes to pafsythat 

 all that humane Keafon which we employ^ as touching the In- 

 ^uijition of things, if not well digefted and bnilf-i but like 

 fame magnificent tile without foundation. For whilft men 

 admire and celebrate the counterfeit forces of the mind i her 

 true powers which might be raifed (were right direSlions ad- 

 tninijired, and ftye taught to become obfequious to things , 

 and not impotently to infidt over them ) they pafs by and 

 lofe. This one way remaineth that the biifinefs be wholly 



[Ej re attempted 



