ngs are best to be _stor'd up_ for our purpose, and which is the
best way of so _disposing_ them, that they may not only be _kept in
safety_, but ready and convenient, to be at any time _produc'd_ for use, as
occasion shall require. But I will not here prevent my self in what I may
say in another Discourse, wherein I shall make an attempt to propose some
Considerations of the manner of compiling a Natural and Artificial History,
and of so ranging and registring its Particulars into Philosophical Tables,
as may make them most useful for the raising of _Axioms_ and _Theories_.
The last indeed is the most _hazardous_ Enterprize, and yet the most
_necessary_; and that is, to take such care that the _Judgment_ and the
_Reason_ of Man (which is the third Faculty to be repair'd and improv'd)
should receive such assistance, as to avoid the dangers to which it it by
nature most subject. The Imperfections, which I have already mention'd, to
which it is lyable, do either belong to the _extent_, or the _goodness_ of
its knowledge; and here the difficulty is the greater, least that which may
be thought a _remedy_ for the one should prove _destructive_ to the other,
least by seeking to inlarge our Knowledge, we should render it weak, and
uncertain; and least by being 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, nothing it 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 examin'd_, 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 at a _Tyrant._ It must not
_incroach_ 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 it laid up in the
Memory: but it must be sure to make _distinction_ between the _sober_ and
_well collected heap_, and the _extravagant Ideas_, and _mistaken Images_,
wh
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