The history of the Royal Society of London, for the Improving of Natural Knowledge / By Tho. Sprat.
- Thomas Sprat
- Date:
- 1702
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The history of the Royal Society of London, for the Improving of Natural Knowledge / By Tho. Sprat. Source: Wellcome Collection.
31/470 page 9
![(ROY ALSO Cl ET r. Difputes : controverfies were rais’d: Factions were made : many fubtilties of confuting, and defending, were invented : but fa indeed of joyning all their ftrength to overcome the fecrets of Nature ( all which would have been little enough, though never fo wifely manag'd ) they onely did that, which has undone many flich great attempts, before they had yet fully conquer'd her; they fell into an open diffenfon, to which of them, her fpoyls did be¬ long, rTis true, at the fame time, fome few men did con¬ tinue an earned, and laborious purfuit, after Natu* ral caufes, and effects: and took that courfe, which, if it had met with as much incouragement, as the others had, would without queftion have produc’d extraordinary things. But thefe Philofbphers, dig¬ ging deep, out of the fight of men ; and ftudying more, how to conceive things aright, then how tofet off] and perfuade their conceptions, to others; were quickly almoft quite overwhelm'd, by the more plaufible and Talkative Sedts. This wras the fuccefs of that Famous Age of the Sed. VI. Grecian Learning, in refpedt of Natural knowledge. e Rhilofo- They flay’d not ior an information fufficientfor fuch phy amongfi a noble Enterprife : They would not buffer their po» the Romans, fterity, to have any fhare with them, in the honor of performing it : But too fuddenly, for prefect ufe, they clap'd up an entire Building of Sciences : and therefore it is not to be wonder’d, if the ha fly Fabrick, which they rais'd, did not confifl of the belt materials. ■ But at laft with their Empire, their Arts alfb were tranfporied to Rome: the great fpirit of their Law- B .givers,](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b30499963_0031.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
