Extracts from micrographia, or some physiological descriptions of minute bodies made by magnifying glasses : with observations and inquiries thereupon / by R. Hooke.

  • Robert Hooke
Date:
1894
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Extracts from micrographia, or some physiological descriptions of minute bodies made by magnifying glasses : with observations and inquiries thereupon / by R. Hooke. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    I 2 too scrupulous and exact about every Circumstance of it, we should confine and streighten it too much In both these the middle wayes are to be taken, no- thing 1S to be omitted, and yet every thing to pass a mature deliberation ; No Intelligence from Men of all Professions and quarters of the World, to be slighted, and yet all to be so severely examined, that there remain no room for doubt or instability; much rigour in admitting, much strictness in comparing, and above all, much slowness in debating, and shyness in determining, is to be practised. The Understanding is to order all the inferiour services of the lower Faculties ; but yet it is to do this only as a lawful Master, and not as a Tyrant. It must not in- * croach upon their Offices, nor take upon it self the employments which belong to either of them. It must watch the irregularities of the Senses, but it must not go before them, or prevent their information. It must examine, range, and dispose of the bank which is laid up in the Memory • but it must be sure to make distinction between the sober and well collected heap, and the extrava- gant Idea's, and mistaken Images, which there it may sometimes light upon. So many are the links, upon which the true Philosophy depends, of which, if any one be loose, or weak, the whole chain is in danger of being dissolv'd ; it is to begin with the Hands and Eyes, and to proceed on through the Memory, to be continued by the Reason ; nor is it to stop there, but to come about to the Hands and Eyes again, and so, by a continual passage round from one Faculty to another, it is to be maintained in life and strength, as much as the body of man is by the circulation of the blood through the several parts of the body, the Arms, the Feet, the Lungs, the Heart, and the Head. If once this method were followed with diligence and attention, there is nothing that lyes within the power of