r % ] 



fame fuccefs as in others. The all~ 

 wife Author of Nature hath implanted 

 in the mind a peculiar thirft for know- 

 ledge, which however, from the nar^ 

 row limits of our intellects, and the 

 infmite variety of objects, is not poffefr. 

 by all in the fame degree. When this 

 principle is rightly directed, it may 

 juftly be called a fpur to wifdom, 

 ojherwife it is apt to precipitate us i nto^ 

 doubts and uncertainti.es, and in at- 

 tempting many and great things we 

 perform nothing. To fay nothing of 

 other purfuits, would it not have been 

 rnore reafonable for the antients, who 

 devoted themfelves to the fludy of 

 aftrology, andthe contemplation of ce- 

 leflial bodies, at an infinite diftance, to 

 have inveftigated the various inhabi- 

 tants of their own planet, and been 

 more foiicitous about things which 

 .were really known to exift, than about , s 



thofe 



