Page:Reflections upon ancient and modern learning (IA b3032449x).pdf/397

 as to those things, is visibly altered from what it was Twenty or Thirty Years ago: So that though the ROYAL SOCIETY has weathered the rude Attacks of such sort of Adversaries as Stubbe, who endeavoured to have it thought, That Studying of Natural Philosophy and Mathematicks, was a ready Method to introduce Scepticism at least, if not Atheism into the World: Yet the sly Insinuations of the Men of Wit, That no great things have ever, or are ever like to be performed by the Men of Gresham, and, That every Man whom they call a Virtuoso, must needs be a Sir Nicholas Gim-crack, have so far taken off the Edge of those who have opulent Fortunes, and a Love to Learning, that Physiological Studies begin to be contracted amongst Physicians and Mechanicks. The Truth is, one must spend a good deal of Time and Pains, of Industry and Attention, before he will be able thoroughly to relish them: And those who do not, rarely know their Worth, and consequently do very seldom pass a right Judgment upon them: For which Reason, when the present Sett of Philosophers are gone off, it is a great Question, whether a