Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Volume 1.djvu/40

 The PREFACE: javii

ABUNDANCE of the lei's ufeful Notices, we find, Were kept back, and left to be accidentally turned up in courfe of time : fuch as the Knowledge ol" Glafies, and their Eftects. 'Twas no very important matter whe- ther they were known or not ; their ufes were not immediate. If they had, the things themfelves would have been palpable, and neceffarily difcovered long ago. Men lived tolerably well without knowing how many Feet a Loufe had, or how many Years a Cannon Ball would be in travelling to the Sun. The Rtfrangibilily of the Rays of Light in palling different Mediums, which is the great Foundation of all our optic Glafies ; feems only a fecondary Property or Effect ariling from another Power, or property of AttraBion between the Light and the Medium ; which it felf probably arifes from fome other. And there feems nothing abfurd in ima- gining that Nature did not immediately intend fuch Refrangibility ; but that it follow'd accidentally, from fome Principle which fhe did intend : So that the great modern Invention of Glafies, might be an accidental Deriva- vation, from fome of Nature's Redundancies. In effect, the only things left to Study and Art, may be thcfe very Redundancies ; the other Matters, which primarily concern us, being learnt in a more immediate manner, N O body will take this for a Reflection on Art : 'Tis only a Panegyrick on Nature : an Illuitration of her Goodnefs in contriving that things moil neceifary and ufeful, mould be molt obvious, fo as to be almoft difcovcr- able by a fort of Inftinct ; and the other lefs immediately ufeful ones, left to be accidentally turned up in the Courfe of Experiment and Difquifition. We may admire her Wifdom ftill farther in this, that fhe fhou'd as it were go out of her way, and annex a fort of Pleafure, beyond her main Purpofe, to the Knowledge even of things not immediately ufeful ; in order to engage us to Induftry and Activity. This fhews that lhe has Ends to ferve by that very Activity ; and perhaps is the belt Demonftration in the World of the Neceffity we are under to purfue Knowledge ; and may raife a Sufpicion, that this very Purfuit may poffibly contribute to our Prefervation in fome farther manner not ytt attended to.

'TIS no wonder the School Philofophy mould be carried fuch a length; confidering the narrownefs of its Subject, and the great number of hands to cultivate it for fo long a time. Its chief Employment is in afligning, and enumerating the Characters and Differences of our Perceptions, or internal Objects, taken as they are excited in us in the natural Courfe of things ; by which it is diftinguifhed from the Modern, which is chiefly imployed in means to vary and modify thefe Perceptions ■, and thus find out farther Relations and

Differences than would otherwife have appear'd.- The Philofophers of the former kind are contented to take

Nature as fhe comes home to 'em ; and apply their Reafonings thereto without more ado : Thofe of the latter, go out in queft of her, to have more Matter to reafon upon. The former are more contemplative, the lat- ter more active ; the former, in fine, reafon, abftract, and difcourfe more ; the latter obferve, try, and relate more.

HENCE we difcover why the Old is much more perfeft in its kind than the New. The former has little to do but compare, order, methodize, (Sc. what is ready at hand ; the latter has lilcewife to find -, after which all the labour of the other itill remains. The former takes Nature in all her Simplicity ; the latter adds Art to her, and thus brings Nature into confideration in all her diverfity : the former chiefly confiders natural Bo- dies in their integral State ; the latter divides, and analyfes 'em : So that the former finds moft of the princi- pal Relations, the latter many more curious, and amufing ones. Hence, the former haltes to its Perfection, and can't long hold out ; for that its Matter is limited : the latter can fcarce ever arrive at it, fince Experi- ments are endlefs. To fay no more, to have Philofophy in its perfection, wc (hould have the Order, Precifion, and Diftinctnefs of the Old ; and the Matter, the Copia of the New.

THE modern is yet wild and unafcertain'd. 'Tis not arrived at the Maturity of Method ; the Mine is but juft open'd, and the Adventurers are yet only follicitous about the Matter to fee what it affords. Circum- ftances do not yet come in courfe ; and 'twill be long ere it arrive at a juft extent to give room and leifure for reducing it to regularity. True, the Rules and Methods of the antient, are in fome meafure applicable to the new, and will go a good way towards the ordering and afcertaining of it ; but the prefent Philofophers feem yet too warm and fanguine for fuch a Bufinefs ; which muft be left to the fucceeding Age to think about. Add, that the farther they go on to dig Materials, itill the more difficult will the ranging of 'em be ; inafmuch as there is but one true and juft Order to lay them in ; and the more of 'em, the more intricate that Order, and the harder to find. This a Man may be pofitive of, he never will fee half the Experiments and Obfervations already made, laid up or ufed in a Syftem of Phyfics.

BUT when that is done, a deal will ftill remain, ere we have the chief ufes of ir. For phyfical Know- ledge, ftrictly confider'd, is only a Step, a Means of arriving at a higher and farther kind. Hiftories, Ob- fervations, and Experiments of the Kinds, Order, Strata, &c. for inftance of Foliils, are very ufeful and laudable things, as they tend to lay in a Stock of fenfible Phenomena, for the Mind to work upon, digeft, and draw new Notices from, for the Improvement of our own Faculties, and the better Conduct ot Life : But 'tis a Shortfightednefs to forget this farther View, and look only to the Things themfelves. The bare Acquifition of new Ideas is no real advantage, unlefs they be fuch as have fome relation to our felves, and are in fome fenfe adequate, and adapted to the Circumftances of our Wants, and Occafions, or capable of being made fo. Knowledge, in the firft State, is like Food in the Stomach, which may pleafe and fatisfy us, but is of no ufe to the Body till farther prepared. It muft be brought nearer us, and made more our own, more homogeneous to our felves, ere it feeds us. The modern Philofophy is not fo properly a Philofophy, as the Adit or Open- ing of one. Its Matter has yet only undergone the firft Concoction : we are yet only converfant about new phyfical Relations, learnt by Senfation ; whereas to bring it to the Perfection requir'd, it muft have un- dergone the farther Operations of Imagination, and Reafon. Mere Phyfics, as fuch, do not make a Philofo- phy ; thofe Phyfics muft firft be carried up to Metaphyfics and Ethics, ere we can fafely flop. So fir as it is Phyfics, it is foreign to the Mind, and its Occafions ; before it affect and influence our Reafon and Judgment, it muft be fubtiliz'd vaftly, and made more fimilar to the Metaphyfical Nature of the Mind. While Phyfics, it remains under the Direction of the Author of Nature ; and proceeds wholly by his Laws, and to exe- cute his Purpofes : ere it come under our Direction, and become fubfervient to our Will, it muft have laid afide what was active, and neceffary in it, and become paffive to our Reafon, i. e. it muft have been tranf- fer'd from the Dominion of the Almighty's Will, or Reafon, and brought under ours ; if that do not im- ply a Contradiction.

TO return. Senfible Phenomena, we have already fhewn, are the Foundation of Philofophy : but your Edifice will neither make any Figure, nor afford any Convenience, till you have carried it one or two Stories higher. 'Tis but, as it were, the Cellaring, or Ground-work ; which one would think were no very comfor- table place to live and fpend all one's time in. 'Tis one extreme, to take our Lodging as fome of the modern Virtuofos are contented to do, under ground ; and another to refide altogether in Garrets, as the Schoolmen may be faid to have done,

THE School Philofophy, however, is of fome farther ufe, as Matter of Fliftory : We learn by it how People have thought, what Views have obtain'd, and in what various Manners the fame thing has been con- ceiv'd i which, tho it be Knowledge as it were once removed, yet is not intirely ufelefs. The Hiftory of

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