18 A PHILOSOPHICAL: DISCOURSE. 
duĝ, as were beft fuited to: anfwer the end of its inftitution. 
Among others, they laid it down as a fundamental principle, 
that as true phyfics muft be founded on. experiments, fo all their 
enquiries fhould, as. far as pofüible, be carried on, and directed 
by. them. This method- was ftrongly. recommended: by Sir 
Francis Bacon, ** a genius born to embrace the whole compafs. 
of fcience, and juftly filed, the firft great reformer of philofo-. 
phy,"* . It was adopted by fucceeding philofophers, and par- 
ticularly. by the immortal Newton, whofe fyftem of philofophy, 
founded on the laws of nature, will for that reafon be as dura- 
ble as nature itíelf. 
Taking thefe great characters for their —" influenced: 
by their ithifteiogs: miamyle;: they proceeded on fict ane obier- 
vation, and did not admit of any. reafonings ons, but: 
fuch as er celu from cheii This as been ee uniform 
practice of the fociety : whiofe-amer from timeto time, 
having been Shodex poe men dee every " coiii, from. every 
clafs and profeffion, without any other diftin&ion ‘than was. 
dictated by. the dignity of their ‘charaéters, by their morality, 
good fefe, and profeffional- abilities, we find in the printed 
. tranfactions of the. fociety, the beft compofitions on. ‘every fub- 
jet, within the line of their: department. We find in thofe 
tranfactions new fa@s, new obfervations and difcoveries ; or old. 
ones — in a new Tight, dnd new r deductions made from: 
thêm. = 
“They he vep — ularly ore to fach fubje&ts as Tefpected 
which der dad (o pad: sits : iad; that we now fee agricul- 
ture, manufactur nid oor and commerce, in a a high degree 
of 
* Maller’: life of Lord RR Bacon, 
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