I Shall, without Preamble, begin this Discourse, by considering the Delightfulness of Physicks, as the main thing that inveigles your Friend, and divers other Virtuosi, from relishing, as they ought, and otherwise would, the pleasantness of Theological Discoveries. And to deal ingenuously with you, I shall not scruple to acknowledge, that though the Address I have made to Nature has lasted several years, and has been toilsome enough, and not unexpensive; yet I have been pleas’d enough with the favours, such as they are, that she has from time to time accorded me, not to complain of having been unpleasantly imploy’d. But though I readily allow the attainments of Naturalists to be able to give Philosophical Souls sincerer Pleasures, than those that the more undiscerning part of Mankind is so fond of; yet I must not therefore allow them to surpass, or even equal, the Contentment, that may accrue to a Soul qualified by Religion, to relish the best things most from some kind of Theological Contemplations.
This, I presume, will sufficiently appear, if I shew you, that the Study of Physiology is not unattended with considerable Inconveniencies, and that the pleasantness of it may be, by a Person studious of Divinity, enjoy’d with endearing Circumstances.
But before I name any of the particular Reasons that I am to represent, I fear it may be requisite to interpose a few words, to obviate a mistake, which, if not prevented, may have an ill aspect, not onely upon the first Section, but upon a great part of the following Discourse. For I know that it may be said, that whereas I alledge divers things, to lessen the lately mentioned delightfulness of the study of Physic, and to depreciate some other advantages, by which the following Sections would recommend it, some of the same things may be objected against the delightfulness of the study of Divinity. But this Objection will not, I presume, much move you, if you consider the argument and scope of the two parts of this Letter. For in the former I have shewn by positive Proofs, that the study of Theology is attended with divers advantages, which belong to it, either onely as some of them do, or principally as others. And now in the second part I come to consider, whether what is alledged in behalf of the study of Philosophy, deserve to counter-ballance those Prerogatives or Advantages; and therefore it neither need be, nor is my design, to compare, for instance, the delightfulness of the two studies, Philosophy and Physicks, but by shewing the Inconveniences that allay the latter, to weaken the Argument that is drawn from that delightfulness, to conclude it preferrable to the study of Theology. So that my work, in this and the following Sections, is, not so much to institute Comparisons, as to obviate or answer Allegations. For since I have in the past Discourse grounded the Excellency of the study of Divinity, chiefly upon those great advantages that are peculiar to it; my Reasonings would not be frustrated, though it should appear, that in point of Delightfulness, Certainty, &c. that Study should, in many cases, be liable to the same Objections with the Study of Nature, since ‘tis not mainly for these Qualities, but, as I was saying, for other and peculiar Excellencies that I recommended Divinity, And therefore, supposing the Delightfulness, &c. of that and of Physicks, to be allayed by the same, or equal Inconveniences or Imperfections; that Supposition would not hinder the Scales to be swayed in favour of Divinity, upon the score of those Advantages that are unquestion’d, and peculiarly belong to it. I know not whether I need add, that, notwithstanding this, you are not to expect, that I should give Philosophy the wounds of an Enemy. For my design being not to discourage you, nor any Ingenious man, from courting Her at all, nor from courting Her much, but from courting her too much, and despising Divinity for her, I employ against her not a Sword to wound her, but a Ballance, to shew, that her Excellencies, though solid and weighty, are less so, than the preponderating ones of Theology. And this temper and purpose of mine renders my Task difficult enough to have, perhaps, some right to your pardon· as well as some need of it, if I do not every where steer so exactly, as equally to avoid injuring the Cause I am to plead for, and disparaging a Study, which I would so little depreciate, that I allow it a great part of my Inclinations, and not a little share of my Time. And having said this, to keep the Design of this Discourse from being misunderstood, I hope we may now proceed to the particulars, whose scope we have been declaring.
Returning then to what I was about to say before this long, but needful, Advertisement interrupted me, I shall resume my Discourse of the Delightfulness of the Study of Physicks, about which I was going in the first place to tell you, that I know you and your Friend will freely grant me, that the knowledge of the empty and barren Physiology, that is taught in the Schools, as it exacts not much pains to be acquir’d, so it affords but little satisfaction when attain’d. And as I know you will give me leave to say this; so, being warranted by no slight experience of my own, I shall take leave to say also, that the study of that Experimental Philosophy, which is that whereof your Friend is so much enamour’d, is, if it be duly prosecuted, a very troublesome and laborious Imployment. For, (to mention at present but This) that great variety of Objects the Naturalist is not onely by His Curiosity, but by Their secret dependances upon one another, engag’d to consider, and several ways to handle, will put him upon needing, and consequently upon applying himself to such a Variety of Mechanick People, (as Distillers, Drugsters, Smiths, Turners, &c.) that a great part of his time, and perhaps all his Patience, shall be spent in waiting upon Trades-men, and repairing the losses he sustains by Their disappointments, which is a Drudgery greater than any, who has not try’d it, will imagine, and which yet being as inevitable as unwelcome, does very much counter-ballance and allay the Delightfulness of the Study we are treating of. In which so great a part of a mans care and time must be laid out in providing the Apparatus’es necessary for the trying of Experiments.