A preparatory to the history natural & experimental : written originally in Latine by Francis Lord Verulam ... and now faithfully rendered into English / By a well-wisher to his Lordships writings.
- Francis Bacon
- Date:
- 1670
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A preparatory to the history natural & experimental : written originally in Latine by Francis Lord Verulam ... and now faithfully rendered into English / By a well-wisher to his Lordships writings. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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!['feverely vanned before they be received, cfpccially cbofe which are wont'to bederived from the vulgar fympathy and antipathy, with a great deai of flhthfuincfs and facility, both in believing and feigning thepi^ Neither is it a fmall bufinefs that is done. In the imb^urdening of a* Natu- ; ralHiftoryof thefe three fuperfluitiesj which wc have mentioned, which would othcrwife ftuffe up whole Volumes. Nor is here an end yet; for ina great wofk) it is as requifite, that the things received be Penned fuc- cindly, as that iuperfluous matters be Jopt of : Althou«^h there is no doubt, but that this kind of curtnefs and brevity, will afford far lefs de- ! light both to the Reader and W riter. But it muft always be remembred ! that this thing} that is in hand, is nothing elfe, but the Garner and] Store- houfe of things, wherein men muft not tarry or dwell with pleafure • but muft defcend thereto as need requires, when any thing is to be made u(e i of, about the work of the /fjterpreter which follows it. IV,. j ”■ .■ 1 ■ j , In the Hiftory which we require, and purpofe in our mind, above all i things it muft be looked after, that its extent be large, and that it be made after the meafure of the Univerfe, for the World ought not tobetyed i into the ftraightnefs of the underftanding (which hitherto hath been done; but our Intelled (hould be ftretched and widened, jfo as ro be capable of I the Image of the World, fuch as we find it; for that cuftome otRrfpeB- iftg but a few things, and puffing fentence according to that paucity and fcanrnefs hath fpoiled all. Therefore we re-alTuming that divifion of our Natural Hiftory, which we made of it a little before (that it be cither of j Generationsy Pretergenerationsy ov ^rts.) We have cpnftitutcd five Parts ' of the Hiflory of Generations. Let the firft be concerning the I and .Celeftial tbmgSy the fecond of MeteorSy and Regions (as they call them; of i the ^/V, to wit of the Trads from the Moon to the Supefficies^f the I Earth: To which part alfo we afiign for orders fake (however the* truth of the thing be) all kind of Comets, both fublimer as lower. The third, ! of xh^ Land axid Sea. The fourth, of the (as they call them) of I Elamcy or Fir/y Aircy Watery and Earth. But we would have the Elements ■ uaderftoodj not for the Firfi Principles of things, but for the greater Malfcs of Natural Bodies: for thp Nature of things is fo diftrrbuted, that the f Quantity, or Mafs of certain Bodies in the llniverle is very great, bccaufe that there is required an eafie and obvious Texture of the Matter to the framing of them, fuch as are ?hofe four bodies which we fpcak of. * But for certain other bodies their ^Qiiantity is in the Univerfe fmall and fparin^- ly afforded , by reafon of the. Texture of the Matter very unlike and fub- ! till, and in moftof them Determinate and Organical: Such as are'the i Species of Natural things, Metals, Plants, Animals. . Wherefore we are wont to ftile the former fort^of bodies Greater CdeBions, the latter Smahr : . ColleBtons. * But of thofe Guaur CoHe^fom ^he fourth part of this HiRory i treateth under |he name of^ifements, as we faid before.' Nor is the fourth part confounded with the and third in this, that in all of them we v\\a\^to£jaxxo\^of. AirptVatffyan^ Eartb.y for in the fecond and third part is contained thcHiftory or them, as the Entire parts of the VVorld, and as they refpea.thefahrick^nd framing, of the Univerfe 5 but in tlx? fourth 1—-———___®..__. . thk Natural Hiftory mnfl be penned fuc* cinhly,. The extent tf the Natural Hiftory., Piveparts of the Hiftory of Generations,](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b30343161_0019.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
