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Sir Isaac Newton appears to have had a very extraordinary method of making discoveries; but as that great philosopher did not think proper to reveal it, philosophers of an inferior rank can only guess at it, and admire what they do not fully understand. Where the business of investigation depended upon experiments, as particularly in his excellent enquiries about light, he seems first to have imagined, in his mind, how things were, and afterwards contrived his experiments, on purpose to shew whether those things were as he had preconceived them, or not; and according to the information thus obtained, whether from his own experiments and observations, or those of others; he altered and improved his notions, till after various trials, and various amendments, his notions appeared to be just and perfect. And this is a short, or mechanical method of induction.

But besides this kind of mechanical method, Sir Isaac Newton had a mathematical one, afforded him by his dexterity in algebra, and his admirable invention of fluxions, which are not to be understood and applied in philosophy, without great sagacity and caution, for otherwise

tural Philosophy, p. 65. and compare the whole of that piece, the Preface to his Micrographia, and his own particular enquiries, with the doctrine of the Novum Organum.

they will be apt to mislead. And here this great author has shewn uncommon address, and found the secret of calculating mathematical or mental forces, powers, and motions, and afterwards applying them to natural bodies and natural things. But the attempt is suitable only to a distinguishing and sublime genius, that can let mathematics constantly rule and preside over physics, without corrupting philosophy, or rendering it fantastical.

At other times this great philosopher observed the stricter laws of induction, collected the necessary facts, observations, and experiments, and by contemplating them in his mind, or reasoning upon them, gave the result, with its consequences, as in the theory of the tides, moon, comets, &c. So that he seems to have used all sorts of methods by turns, or to have formed one to himself, compounded of the mechanical, mathematical, and the usual inductive method. So that if this mixed method also were to be prosecuted, and brought to the greatest perfection whereof it is capable, it may fall under that still more general one of the Novum Organum.

This Novum Organum, we have seen, is divided by its author into two general parts, viz. one that is designed to be preparatory or introductory to the other, which is scientifical or doctrinal, so as clearly to deliver a new way of proceeding

upon all kinds of enquiries, with the greatest advantage to the mind, for acquiring a thorough knowledge of the works of nature, and leading to an unlimited practice for accommodating human life.

The design of the preparatory part is to remove prejudice, procure a fair hearing, and give some tolerable notion of the whole. It may be subdivided into seven lesser parts, or sections, the first whereof endeavours, 1. to awaken the mind, as it were from its lethargy, and make it see that philosophy and the sciences are so far from being perfected; that, 2. men are hitherto unprovided of the true instruments and means of forming the sciences; 3. that, as knowledge and power constantly go hand in hand, men have but little knowledge, because they produce but few considerable effects; 4. that the common ways of reasoning and contemplating, though so much magnified, are but delusory things, and require much rectification and amendment; 5. that the common logic and syllogism, however useful in common affairs, are of no service in philosophy; 6. that our first notions of things are faulty, and require to be corrected, improved, and verified; 7. that the sure way of discovering truth has not hitherto been tried; 8. that men form vain idols to themselves, instead of discovering the truths of nature; 9. that

a more powerful logic than the common, or a kind of engine for the mind, is absolutely required for the service of philosophy; 10. men preposterously delight in a hasty and erroneous way of disputing, judging, and confuting, according to the scanty measure of their own knowledge, and the supposed truth of their own ill-formed notions.

The second section shews the several errors we commit in forming our notions of things, and how detrimental such errors are to the progress of philosophy. It shews that the mind is tinged and infected four several ways; for, 1. men in general have a strange propensity, and obstinate property, of referring all things to themselves, as if nothing existed otherwise than is represented by their immediate senses, or as if there was nothing in nature but what their senses immediately perceive; whereas the other parts of the universe, as the air, æther, &c. and other creatures, are to be regarded in philosophy, as well And here man is shewn, 1. inclined to feign and invent from within himself, instead of searching and discovering; 2. to be extremely liable to prepossession and prejudice, so as with difficulty to remove those false and superstitious notions he has once imbibed, as of astrology, omens, judgments, &c. 3. to be easily moved and led away by those things that affect the ima

as man.

gination, more than the reason; 4. to be fond of launching into infinity, and the highest universals, disdaining the intermediate truths, which in practice are more serviceable; 5. to be drenched in the affections of his body, and thence easily turned aside to pride, vanity, false hopes, &c. 6. it is shewn that the human senses, without farther assistance, are of little use in philosophy, though men attribute such great matters to them; and, 7. that men are fond of abstract notions, and general theories, at the same time neglecting the due enquiry into nature and particulars, which alone can shew them what things are. And these imperfections belong to the species of men, or mankind in general.

(2.) The mind is also infected differently, according to the constitution, complexion, bent, or inclination of each particular person, or according to his education, custom, conversation, studies course of reading, employ, and other accidental matters, whence every man has his own peculiar bias, or, as it were, his own particular glass, tinged to his humour, through which he views every thing. And hence some men doat on mathematics, others on chemistry, others on logic, &c. and accordingly tinge and infect whatever they apply to, with mathematics, chemistry, logic, &c. whereas the true philosopher should not be warped to any particular branch of

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