from Metaphyfique, there are pertinent two points of much purpose, the one by way of preparation, the other by way of caution: the firft is, that there be made a Calendar, resembling an Inventory of the estate of man, containing all the inventions, being the works or fruits of Nature or Art, which are now extant, and whereof man is already poffeffed; out of which doth naturally result a Note, what things are yet held impoffible, or not invented: which Calendar will be the more artificial and ferviceable, if to every reputed impossibility you add what thing is extant which cometh the nearest in degree to that Impoffibility; to the end that by these Optatives and Potentials Man's inquiry may be the more awake in deducing direction of works from the speculation of causes: and secondly, that those experiments be not only esteemed which have an immediate and present use, but those principally which are of most Universal confequence for invention of other experiments, and those which give most light to the Invention of causes; for the Invention of the Mariner's Needle, which giveth the direction, is of no lefs benefit for Navigation than the invention of the Sails which give the Motion.

Thus have I paffed through Natural Philofophy, and the deficiences thereof; wherein if I have differed from the ancient and received Doctrines, and thereby fhall move contradiction,-for my part, as I affect not to diffent, so I purpose not to contend. If it be Truth,

Non canimus furdis, refpondent omnia fylva:

The Voice of Nature will confent, whether the voice of man do or not. And as Alexander Borgia was wont to say of the expedition of the French for Naples, that they came with Chalk in their hands to mark up their lodgings, and not with weapons to fight; fo I like better that entry of truth which cometh peaceably, with Chalk to mark up thofe Minds which are capable to lodge and harbour it, than that which cometh with pugnacity and contention.

But there remaineth a divifion of Natural Philofophy according to the Report of the inquiry, and nothing concerning the Matter or subject: and that is Pofitive and Confiderative; when the inquiry reporteth either an Affertion or a Doubt. These doubts or Non Liquets are of two forts, Particular and Total. For the firft, we fee a good example thereof in Ariftotle's Problems, which deserved to have had a better continuance; but so nevertheless as there is one point whereof warning is to be given and taken. The Registering of doubts hath two excellent uses the one, that it faveth Philofophy from errors and falfehoods; when that which is not fully appearing is not collected into affertion, whereby error might draw error, but is reserved in doubt the other, that the entry of doubts is as so many fuckers or sponges to draw use of Knowledge; infomuch as that which, if doubts had not preceded, a man fhould never have advised, but passed it over without Note, is, by the suggestion

and folicitation of doubts, made to be attended and applied. But both these commodities do scarcely countervail an inconvenience which will intrude itself, if it be not debarred; which is, that when a doubt is once received, men labour rather how to keep it a doubt ftill, than how to folve it; and accordingly bend their Wits. Of this we see the familiar example in Lawyers and Scholars, both which, if they have once admitted a doubt, it goeth ever after Authorized for a doubt. But that use of Wit and Knowledge is to be allowed, which laboureth to make doubtful things certain, and not those which labour to make certain things doubtful. Therefore these Calendars of doubts I commend as excellent things; fo that there be this caution used, that when they be thoroughly fifted and brought to resolution, they be from thenceforth omitted, difcarded, and not continued to cherish and encourage men in doubting. To which Calendar of doubts or Problems, I advise be annexed another Calendar, as much or more Material, which is a Calendar of Popular Errors: I mean chiefly in natural History, fuch as pass in speech and conceit, and are nevertheless apparently detected and convicted of untruth; that Man's knowledge be not weakened nor imbased by fuch drofs and vanity. As for the Doubts or Non liquets general, or in Total, I understand those differences of opinions touching the principles of Nature, and the fundamental points of the fame, which have caused the diversity of Sects, Schools, and Philosophies, as that

of Empedocles, Pythagoras, Democritus, Parmenides, and the reft. For although Aristotle, as though he had been of the Race of the Ottomans, thought he could not Reign except the first thing he did he killed all his Brethren; yet to those that seek Truth and not Magiftrality, it cannot but feem a Matter of great profit, to fee before them the feveral opinions touching the foundations of Nature; not for any exact Truth that can be expected in thofe Theories; for as the fame Phænomena in Aftronomy are satisfied by the received Aftronomy of the diurnal Motion, and the proper Motions of the Planets, with their Eccentrics and Epicycles, and likewife by the Theory of Copernicus who fuppofed the Earth to move, (and the Calculations are indifferently agreeable to both,) fo the ordinary face and view of experience is many times satisfied by several Theories and Philosophies; whereas to find the real truth requireth another manner of severity and attention. For as Aristotle faith, that children at the first will call every woman mother, but afterward they come to distinguish according to truth, so Experience, if it be in childhood, will call every Philofophy Mother, but when it cometh to ripeness, it will difcern the true Mother. So, as in the mean time it is good to see the Several Gloffes and Opinions upon Nature, whereof, it may be, every one in fome one point hath feen clearer than his fellows, therefore, I wish fome collection to be made, painfully and understandingly, de Antiquis Philofophiis, out of all the pof

fible light which remaineth to us of them: which kind of work I find deficient. But here I must give warning, that it be done distinctly and severally; the Philofophies of every one throughout by themselves, and not by titles packed and fagotted up together, as hath been done by Plutarch. For it is the harmony of a Philosophy in itself which giveth it light and credence; whereas if it be fingled and broken, it will feem more foreign and diffonant. For as when I read in Tacitus the Actions of Nero, or Claudius, with circumstances of times, inducements, and occafions, I find them not so strange; but when I read them in Suetonius Tranquillus, gathered into titles and bundles, and not in order of time, they seem more monftrous and incredible: fo is it of any Philosophy reported entire, and difmembered by Articles. Neither do I exclude opinions of latter times to be likewise represented in this Calendar of Sects of Philofophy, as that of Theophraftus Paracelfus, eloquently reduced into a harmony by the Pen of Severinus the Dane; and that of Tilefius, and his Scholar Donius, being as a Pastoral Philosophy, full of sense, but of no great depth; and that of Fracaftorius, who, though he pretended not to make any new Philofophy, yet did use the abfoluteness of his own fenfe upon old; and that of Gilbertus our countryman, who revived, with fome alterations and demonftrations, the opinions of Xenophanes: and any other worthy to be admitted.

the

Thus have we now dealt with two of the three.