To the Reader. 



rfhicb ( if rphat is done he acceded ) ^jall he frefxt the 

 NOV. ORG. For of this Tranflation this is the 

 frjl part (Reader.) if it pleafe thee--) if it pleafe thee 

 not, the laji. Bnt before I tak^e my leai/e , here are jome 

 tacitc objeBions , which I would meet half way , and 

 and fo weaken their approaches, leji they fall too heavy 

 upon me. The firft is , touching the Divilion of the firft 

 book into Chapters, contrary to the mind of the Author., 

 and the tntention of the rvorkc This exception may be thus 

 fatisfedy That profit is to be preferred before artificial cori' 

 tri'vancey where both cannot fo conveniently be had; and to 

 this end-, difcretion to be followed before rule. Were the 

 Author now alive and his vaji defigns going on, this altera- 

 tion had been fomewhat bold: but the inimitable Archite^ 

 now dead , having perfeSied little more than the outward 

 Courts, ao it were., of his magnificent Injiauration '-, and the 

 whole fttmm of Sciences, and the fiock^of Arts in prefent 

 poffeffion, not able to defray the charges of fnifhing this Fa* 

 brich^; I thought fit, by compartitions and dijiributions into 

 feveral rooms-, to improve what we have, to our beB advan- 

 tage, fo it might be done without prejudice to the Authors 

 procedure, and apt coherence, which I hope it is: Having 

 refpeSi herein ratherto accommodation than decoration '-, for 

 Houfes (as our Author fay s^ are built to live in, and not to 

 look on, and therefore ule to be preferred before unifor- 

 mity. Another exception may be made againU the draught 

 of the Platform into Analitick Tables, which feemsfome- 

 what pedant icl{, attd againfi that common rule, Artis eft dif- 

 fimulare Arcem. To this I anfwer thus. Ordpr and de- 

 pendance is, as it were, the foul of the World, of the Worlds 

 of Nature and Art, and that which h^eps them united , 

 without which all would fall afunder, and become lil{e the 

 firji Chaos before the produdlion of light. And of aU Me- 

 thods that ever were, at leaU that ever came to our hands, 

 Gur Authors is the mo fi: natural, andmoji dependent. For 

 Truth, as it refieSts on us, is a congruent conformity of the 

 IntelleB to the ObjeSl 3 and of the different faculties thereof 

 to the difference of things : wherefore the trueji Partition of 

 humane Learning, is that, which hath reference to humane 

 faculties ; when the Intelle(^ual Globe, and the Globe o£ 



the 



