Page:History of the Royal Society.djvu/43

Rh before my Eyes, suggest to me) it is in Philosophy as in Husbandry; wherein we see, that a few Hands will serve to measure out, and fill into Sacks, that Corn, which requires very many more Labourers, to sow, and reap, and bind, and bring it into the Barn.

But now it is time for me to dismiss this subtile Generation of Writers; whom I would not have prosecuted so far, but that they are still esteem'd by some Men, the only Matters of Reason. If they would be content with any thing less than an Empire in Learning, we would grant them very much. We would permit them to be great and profound Wits, as Angelical, and Seraphical, as they pleas'd: we would commend them, as we are wont to do Chaucer; we would confess, that they are admirable in Comparison of the Ignorance of their own Age: And, as Sir Philip Sidney said of him, we would say of them; that it is to be wonder'd, how they could see so clearly then, and we can see no clearer now: But that they should still be set before us, as the great Oracles of ail Wit, we can never allow. Suppose, that I should grant, that they are most useful in the Controversies of our Church, to defend us against the Heresies, and: Schisms of our Times; what will thence follow, but that they ought to be confirm'd within their own Bounds, and not to be suffer'd to hinder the Enlargement of the Territories of other Sciences? Let them still prevail in the Schools, and let them govern in Disputations: But let them not over-spread all Sorts of Knowledge. That would be as ridiculous, as if, because we see, that Thorns, and Briers, by Reason of their Sharpness, are fit to stop a Gap, and keep out wild Beasts; we should therefore think, they deserv'd to be planted all over every Field. Rh