Page:Reflections upon ancient and modern learning (IA b3032449x).pdf/279

 were, comparatively speaking, so very imperfectly traced. However, in the remaining Parts of my Parallel, I shall be much shorter; which, I hope, may be some Amends for my too great Length in this.

From those Instruments, or Mechanical Arts, whether Ancient or Modern, by which Knowledge has been advanced, I am now to go to the Knowledge it self. According to the Method already proposed, I am to begin with Natural History in its usual Acceptation, as it takes in the Knowledge of the several Kinds of Elementary Bodies, Minerals, Insects, Plants, Beasts, Birds and Fishes. The Usefulness, and the Pleasure of this Part of Learning is too well known to need any Proof. And besides, it is a Study, about which the greatest Men of all Ages have employed themselves. Of the very few lost Books that are mentioned in the Old Testament, one was an History of Plants, written by the wisest of Men, and he a King. So that there is Reason to believe, that it was cultivated with Abundance of Care by all those who did not place the Perfection of Knowledge in the Art of Wrangling about Questions, which were either useless, or which could not easily be decided.