Page:A Treatise upon the Small-Pox.pdf/8

iv so little Improvement and Augmentation since the Schools of Philosophers were first erected, even down to the last Age: For the Masters of the various Sells of Scholars having not unravelled the Principles of Nature, nor searched accurately into the Order and Connexion of Causes and Effects, it is no wonder that being unfurnished with Experiments and Observations they made no Advances, but to their great Dishonour, with much Sweat and Application, left to Posterity their lame and insignificant Plans: And all Progress and Improvement must have been denied to all useful Learning, and the succeeding Ages must have sat down satisfied with knowing no more than the dry and jejune Schemes of antient Greece, ''had not some of a more inquisitive Genius, and better Judgment in these later Times, plainly seen that the eldest Philosophers began at the wrong End in searching after Science; that they formed precarious and extravagant Systems, and built Castles of Philosophy in the Air, which had no Pillars, that is, no Observations and Tryals able to support them. These therefore took another and the right Method to come at the Knowledge of Nature, by entring into her secret Operations, and finding out the Coherence of'' Causes