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88 is the Father of experimental Philoophy. It mut indeed be confes'd, that very urprizing Secrets had been found out before his Time; The Sea-Compas, Printing, engraving on Copper Plates, Oil-Painting, Looking-Glaes; the Art of retoring, in ome Meaure, old Men to their Sight by Spectacles; Gun-Powder, &c. had been dicover'd. A new World had been ought for, found, and conquer'd. Would not one uppoe that thee ublime Dicoveries had been made by the greatet Philoophers, and in Ages much more enlightened than the preent? But 'twas far otherwie; all thee great Changes happen'd in the mot tupid and barbarous Times. Chance only gave Birth to mot of thoe Inventions; and 'tis very probable that what is call'd Chance, contributed very much to the Dicovery of America at leat it has been always thought, that Chritopher Columbus undertook his Voyage, merely on the Relation of a Captain of a Ship, which a Storm had drove as far Wetward as the Caribee Ilands. Be this as it will, Men had