Page:History of the Royal Society.djvu/347



HOUGH it be certain, that the promoting of Experiments according to this Idea, cannot injure the Virtue, or Wisdom of men's minds, or their former Arts, and mechanical Practices, or their establish'd ways of life; yet the perfect innocence of this design, has not been able to free it from the cavil of the Idle, and the Malicious; nor from the jealousies of private Interests. These groundless prejudices of the particular Professions, and Ranks of Men, I am now in the last Place to remove; and to shew that there is no Foundation for them: To suspect the Change, which can be made by this Institution, or the new things it is likely to produce.

That it will probably be the Original of many new things, I am so far from denying, that I chearfully acknowledge it. Nor am I frighted at that, which is wont to be objected in this Case, the hazard of Alteration, and Novelty. For if all things that are Rh