firm'd by
_Experiments_. This way seems the most excellent, and may preserve both
_Philosophy_ and _Natural History_ from its former _Corruptions_. In saying
which, I may seem to condemn my own Course in this Treatise; in which there
may perhaps be some _Expressions_, which may seem more _positive_ then YOUR
Prescriptions will permit: And though I desire to have them understood only
as _Conjectures_ and _Quaeries_ (which YOUR Method does not altogether
disallow) yet if even in those I have exceeded, 'tis fit that I should
declare, that it was not done by YOUR Directions. For it is most
unreasonable, that YOU should undergo the _imputation_ of the _faults_ of
my _Conjectures_, seeing YOU can receive so _small advantage_ of reputation
by the _sleight Observations_ of

YOUR most humble and
most faithful Servant

ROBERT HOOKE.

* * * * *

THE

PREFACE.

It is the great prerogative of Mankind above other Creatures, that we are
not only able to _behold_ the works of Nature, or barely to _sustein_ our
lives by them, but we have also the power of _considering_, _comparing_,
_altering_, _assisting_, and _improving_ them to various uses. And as this
is the peculiar priviledge of humane Nature in general, so is it capable of
being so far advanced by the helps of Art, and Experience, as to make some
Men excel others in their Observations, and Deductions, almost as much as
they do Beasts. By the addition of such _artificial Instruments_ and
_methods_, there may be, in some manner, a reparation made for the
mischiefs, and imperfection, mankind has drawn upon it self, by negligence,
and intemperance, and a wilful and superstitious deserting the Prescripts
and Rules of Nature, whereby every man, both from a deriv'd corruption,
innate and born with him, and from his breeding and converse with men, is
very subject to slip into all sorts of errors.

The only way which now remains for us to recover some degree of those
former perfections, seems to be, by rectifying the operations of the
_Sense_, the _Memory_, and _Reason_, since upon the evidence, the
_strength_, the _integrity_, and the _right correspondence_ of all these,
all the light, by which our actions are to be guided is to be renewed, and
all our command over things it to be establisht.

It is therefore most worthy of our consideration, to recollect their
several defects, that so we may the better understand how to supply them,
and by wh