I Am not so little acquainted with the Temper of this Age, and of the Persons that are likeliest to be Perusers of the following Tract, as not to foresee it to be probable enough, that Some will ask, For what Reason a Discourse of this Nature was written at all; and that Others will be displeas’d that it has been written by Me.
Those that would know, by what Inducements my Pen was engag’d on this Subject, may be in great part inform’d by the Epistle it self, in divers places whereof, as especially about the Beginning, and at the Close, the Motives that invited me to put Pen to Paper are sufficiently express’d. And though several of those Things are peculiarly apply’d, and (if I may so speak) appropriated to the Person the Letter is address’d to; yet that Undervaluation, I would disswade Him from, of the Study of Things Sacred, is not His fault alone, but is grown so rise among many (otherwise Ingenious) Persons, especially Studiers of Physicks, that I wish the ensuing Discourse were much less seasonable than I fear it is.
But I doubt, that some Readers, who would not think a Discourse of this Nature Needless or Useless, may yet not be pleased at its being written by One, whom they imagine the Acceptance his Endeavours have met with, ought to oblige to spend his whole Time in Cultivating that Natural Philosophy, which in this Letter he would perswade to quit the Precedency, they think it may well challenge, before all other sorts of Learning.
I am not unsensible of the favourable Reception that the Philosophical Papers I have hitherto ventured Abroad, have had the Happiness to receive from the Curious: But I hope, they will not be displeas’d, if I represent, that I am no Lecturer or Professor of Physicks, nor have ever engag’d my self by any Promise made to the Publick, to confine my self, never to write of any other Subject; nor is it Reasonable, that what I did or may write, to gratifie other mens Curiosity, should deprive me of mine own Liberty, and Confine me to One Subject; especially since there are divers Persons, for whom I have a great Esteem and Kindness, who think they have as much Right to solicit me for Composures of the Nature of this, that They will now have to go abroad, as the Virtuosi have to exact of me Physiological Pieces. And though I be not ignorant, that (in particular) the following Discourse, which seems to depreciate the Study of Nature, may at first sight appear somewhat improper for a Person, that has purposely written to show the Excellence and Usefulness of it; yet I confess, that, upon a more Attentive Consideration of the Matter, I cannot Reject, no, nor Resist, Their Reasons, who are of a quite differing Judgment.
And 1. My Condition, and my being a Secular Person (as they speak) are look’d upon as Circumstances that may advantage an Author that is to write upon such a Subject as I have handled. I need not tell you, that as to Religious Books in general, it has been observ’d, that those penn’d by Lay-men, and especially Gentlemen, have (caeteris paribus) been better entertain’d, and more effectual than those of Ecclesiasticks: And indeed ‘tis no great wonder, that Exhortations to Piety, and Disswasions from Vice, and from the Lusts and Vanities of the World, should be the more prevalent for being press’d by Those, who have, and yet decline, the Opportunities to enjoy plentifully Themselves the pleasures They disswade Others from. And (to come yet closer to our present purpose) though I will not venture to say with an excellent Divine, That what ever comes out of the Pulpit, does with many pass but for the foolishness of Preaching; yet it cannot well be deni’d, but that if all other Circumstances be equal, He is the fittest to commend Divinity, whose Profession It is not; and That it will somewhat add to the Reputation of almost any Study, and consequently to that of things Divine, That ‘tis prais’d and preferr’d by Those, whose Condition and Course of Life exempting them from being of any particular Calling in the Common-wealth of Learning, frees Them from the usual Temptations to Partiality to this or that sort of Study, which Others may be engag’d to magnifie, because ‘tis their Trade or their Interest, or because ‘tis Expected from them; whereas these Gentlemen are oblig’d to commend it, onely because they really Love and Value it.
But there is another thing that seems to make it yet more fit, that a Treatise on such a Subject should be Penn’d by the Authour of This: For profess’d Divines are suppos’d to be busied about Studies, that even by their being of an Higher, are confess’d to be of Another, Nature, than those that treat of things Corporeal. And since it may be observ’d, that there is scarce any sort of Learned men, that is more apt to undervalue those that are vers’d onely in other parts of Knowledge, than many of our Modern Naturalists, (who are conscious of the Excellency of the Science they Cultivate,) ‘tis much to be fear’d, that what would be said of the Preeminences of Divinity above Physiology by Preachers (in whom the Study of the Latter is thought either but a Preparatory thing, or an Excursion) would be look’d upon as the Decision of an Incompetent, as well as Interressed, Judge; and their undervaluations of the Advantages of the study of the Creatures, would be (as their depreciating the Enjoyment of the Creatures too often is,) thought, to proceed but from their not having had sufficient opportunities to relish the pleasures of them. But these Prejudices will not lie against a Person, who has made the Indagation of Nature somewhat more than a Parergon, and having by a not-lazie nor short Enquiry manifested, how much He loves and can relish the Delight It affords, has had the good Fortune to make some Discoveries in it, and the Honour to have them Publickly, and but too Complementally, taken notice of by the Virtuosi. And it may be not Impertinent to add, that those who make Natural Philosophy their Mistris, will probably be the less offended to find her in this Tract represented, if not as an Handmaid to Divinity, yet as a Lady of a lower Rank; because the Inferiority of the Study of Nature is maintain’d by a Person, who, even whilst he asserts it, continues (if not a Passionate) an Assiduous Courter of Nature: So that, as far as his Example can reach, it may show, that as on the one side a man need not be acquainted with, or unfit to relish, the Lessons taught us in the Book of the Creatures, to think them less Excellent than those, that may be learned in the Book of the Scriptures; so on the other side, the Preference of this last Book is very consistent with an high Esteem and an Assiduous Study of the first.
And if any should here object, that there are some Passages, (which I hope are but very few) that seem a little too unfavourable to the Study of Natural things; I might alledge for my excuse the great difficulty that there must be in comparing two sorts of Studies, both of which a man much esteems, so to behave ones self, as to split a hair between them, and never offend either of them: But I will rather represent, that in such kind of Discourses as the ensuing, it may justly be hop’d, that equitable Readers will consider, not onely what is said, but on what occasion, and with what design ‘tis delivered. Now ‘tis plain by the Series of the following Discourse, that the Physeophilus, whom it most relates to, was by me look’d upon as a Person, both very partial to the study of Nature, and somewhat prejudic’d against that of the Scripture; so that I was not always to treat with him, as with an indifferent man, but, according to the Advice, given in such cases by the Wise, I was (to use Aristotle’s expression) to bend the crooked stick the contrary way, in order to the bringing it to be straight, and to depreciate the study of Nature somewhat beneath its true value, to reduce a great Over valuer to a just Estimate of it. And to gain the more upon Him, I allow’d my self now and then to make use of the contempt he had of the Peripatetick and Vulgar Philosophy, and in some passages to speak of them more slightingly, than my usual Temper permits, and than I would be forward to do on another occasion; that, by such a Complaisance for his Opininions, I might have Rises to Argue with him from them.
But to return to the Motives that were alledg’d to induce me to the Publication of these Papers, though I have not nam’d them all, yet all of them together would scarce have prov’d effectual, if they had not been made more prevalent by the just Indignation I conceived, to see even Inquisitive Men depreciate that kind of Knowledge, which does the most Elevate, as well as the most Bless, Mankind, and look upon the Noblest and Wisest Employments of the Understanding, as Signs of weakness in it.
‘Tis not that I expect, that whatever can be said, and much less what I have had occasion to say Here, will make Proselytes of those that are resolved against the being made so, and had rather deny themselves the Excellentest kinds of Knowledge, than allow that there can be any more Excellent, than what they think themselves Masters of: But I despair not, that what is here represented, may serve to fortifie in a high Esteem of Divine Truths those that have already a just Veneration for them, and preserve Others from being seduc’d by Injurious, though sometimes Witty, Insinuations, to undervalue that kind of Knowledge, that is as well the most Excellent in it self, as the most Conducive to Man’s Happiness. And for this Reason I am the less displeas’d to see, that the following Letter is swell’d to a Bulk far greater than its being but a Letter promises, and then I first intended. For I confess, that when the Occasion hapned that made me put Pen to Paper, as I chanc’d to be in a very unsetled Condition (which I fear has had too much influence on what I have written,) so I did not design the insisting near so long upon my Subject as I have done; but new things springing up (if I may so speak) under my Pen, I was content to allow them room in my Paper, because writing as well for my own satisfaction, as for that of my Friend, I thought it would not be useless to lay before my own Eyes, as well as His, those Considerations that seem’d proper to justifie to My self as well as to Him, the Preference I gave Divine Truths (before Physiological ones) and to confirm my self in the Esteem I had for them. And though I freely confess, that the following Discourse doth not consist of nothing but Ratiocinations, and consequently is not altogether of an Uniform Contexture; yet that will, I hope, be thought no more than was fit in a Discourse, design’d not onely to Convince, but to Perswade: Which if it prove so happy as to do, as I hope the Peruser will have no cause to regret the trouble of Reading it, so I shall not repent that of Writing it.