Page:Reflections upon ancient and modern learning (IA b3032449x).pdf/275

 the Microscope disagree only as Twi-light and Noon-day, then a Man is satisfied that the Knowledge which each affords to us, differs only in Degree, not in Sort. (4.) It can signifie nothing in the present Controversie, to pretend that Books are lost; or to say, that, for ought we know, Herophilus might anciently have made this Discovery, or Erasistratus that; their Reasonings demonstrate the Extent of their Knowledge as convincingly as if we had a Thousand old Systems of Ancient Anatomy extant. (5.) In judging of Modern Discoveries, one is nicely to distinguish between Hypothesis and Theory. The Anatomy of the Nerves holds good, whether the Nerves carry a Nutritious Juice to the several Parts of the Body, or no. The Pancreas sends a Juice into the Duodenum, which mixes there with the Bile, let the Nature of that Juice be what it will. Yet here a nice Judge may observe, that every Discovery has mended the Hypotheses of the Modern Anatomists; and so it will always do, till the Theories of every Part, and every Juice, be as entire as Experiments and Observations can make them.

As these Discoveries have made the Frame of our own Bodies a much more intelligible Thing than it was before,