Page:Reflections upon ancient and modern learning (IA b3032449x).pdf/199



the Method which I set to my self in these Reflections, I chose to begin with an Enquiry into those Sciences, whose Extent is more liable to be contested; and so onwards, to those which may more easily be determined. Monsieur Perrault, who has not finished his Parallel, that I know of, took it for granted, that if the Prize were granted to the Moderns in Eloquence, in Poesie, in Architecture, in Painting, and in Statuary, the Cause would be given up in every Thing else; and he, as the declared Advocate for the Moderns, might go on triumphantly with all the rest. Wherein, possibly, he was not, in the main, much mistaken. How he manages the remaining Part of his Parallel, I know not. I intend to begin with Abstracted Mathematicks; both because all its Propositions are of Eternal Truth, and besides, are the Genuine Foundations upon which all real Physiology must be built.