on matters, whereof there it no assurance to be given.

Thus all the uncertainty, and mistakes of humane actions, proceed either
from the narrowness and wandring of our _Senses_, from the slipperiness or
delusion of our _Memory_, from the confinement or rashness of our
_Understanding_, so that 'tis no wonder, that our power over natural causes
and effects is so slowly improv'd, seeing we are not only to contend with
the obscurity and _difficulty of the things_ whereon we work and think, but
even the _forces of our own minds_ conspire to betray us.

These being the dangers in the process of humane Reason, the remedies of
them all can only proceed from the _real_, the _mechanical_, the
_experimental_ Philosophy, which has this advantage over the Philosophy of
_discourse_ and _disputation_, that whereas that chiefly aims at the
subtilty of its Deductions and Conclusions, without much regard to the
first ground-work, which ought to be well laid on the Sense and Memory; so
this intends the right ordering of them all, and the making them
serviceable to each other.

The first thing to be undertaken in this weighty work, is a _watchfulness
over the failings_ and an _inlargement of the dominion_, of the Senses.

To which end it is requisite, first, That there should be a _scrupulous_
choice, and a _strict examination_, of the reality, constancy, and
certainty of the Particulars that we admit: This is the first rise whereon
truth is to begin, and here the most severe, and most impartial diligence,
must be imployed; the storing up of all, without any regard to evidence or
use, will only tend to darkness and confusion. We must not therefore esteem
the riches of our Philosophical treasure by the _number_ only, but chiefly
by the _weight_; the most _vulgar_ Instances are not to be neglected, but
above all, the most _instructive_ are to be entertain'd; the footsteps of
Nature are to be trac'd, not only in her _ordinary course_, but when she
seems to be put to her shifts, to make many _doublings_ and _turnings_, and
to use some kind of art in indeavouring to avoid our discovery.

The next care to be taken, in respect of the Senses, is a supplying of
their infirmities with _Instruments_, and, as it were, the adding of
_artificial Organs_ to the _natural_; this in one of them has been of late
years accomplisht with prodigious benefit to all sorts of useful knowledge,
by the invention of Optical Glasses. By the means of _Telescopes_, th