Page:Reflections upon ancient and modern learning (IA b3032449x).pdf/50

 cients had equal Opportunities of advancing and pursuing their Enquiries, with as much Facility as the Moderns, which were either slightly passed over, or wholly neglected, if we set the Labours of some few Men aside: And Lastly, If it should be proved, that by some great and happy Inventions, wholly unknown to former Ages, new and spacious Fields of Knowledge have been discovered, and, pursuant to those Discoveries, have been viewed, and searched into, with all the Care and Exactness which such noble Theories required. If these Three Things should be done, both Questions would be at once resolved, and Sir William Temple would see that the Moderns have done something more than Copy from their Teachers, and that there is no absolute necessity of making all those melancholy Reflections upon (a) the Sufficiency and Ignorance of the present Age, which he, moved with a just Resentment and Indignation, has thought fit to bestow upon them.

How far these Things can, or cannot be proved, shall be my Business in these following Papers to enquire. But First, Of those Things wherein, if the Ancients have so far excelled as to bring them to Perfection, it may be thought that they did it because they were born before us.