Page:History of the Royal Society.djvu/49

Rh conclude them to be Men of another World, only fit Companions for the Shadow, and their own melancholy Whimsies; looking on those who dig in the Mine of Nature, to be in as bad a Condition, as the King of Spain's Slaves in Peru, condemn'd for ever to that Drudgery, and never to be redeem'd to any other Imployment. And is not this a very unequal Proceeding? While some over-zealous Divines do reprobate natural Philosophy as a carnal Knowledge, and a too much minding worldly Things, the Men of the World, and Business, on the other side, esteem it merely as an idle Matter of Fancy, and as that which disables us from taking right Measures in human Affairs. Thus, by the one Party, it is censur'd for stooping too low; by the other, for soaring too high: so that, methinks, it is a good Ground to conclude, that it is guilty of neither of these Faults, seeing it is alike condemn'd by both the Extremes. But I shall have a fitter Occasion to examine this hereafter. However it be, it is not to be wonder'd, if Men have not been very zealous about those Studies, which have been so far removed from present Benefit, and from the Applause of Men. For what should incite them to bestow their Time, and Art, in revealing to Mankind those Mysteries, for which, it may be, they would be only despis'd at last? How few must there needs be, who will be willing to be impoverish'd for the common Good, while they shall see all the Rewards, which might give Life to their Industry passing by them, and bestow'd on the Deserts of easier Studies? and while they, for all their Pains, and publick Spirit, shall only perhaps be served, as the poor Man was in the Fable; who, while he went down into the Well, in Assurance, Rh