That the Title of the following Treatise might not raise in the Reader an Expectation of more then he will find in the Book, I think my self oblig’d to inform him, That, though it come not forth before, divers parts were sent to the Press in 1660, or 1661, and this present Year 1663, yet the very Last Essay of it was written divers Years before. Since when those Papers were left, sometimes in the hands of Friends, and sometimes in distant places where I could not come at them: which I mention, that the Reader may neither wonder nor blame Me, if he now meet with some things in them that have already been published by others, or are more vulgarly known then my way of mentioning them implyes. For it may, this notwithstanding, very well be, that when I writ them, no body had yet lighted on some of them, and that others of them did then but begin to be taken notice of. And as for the Five first Essays, which treat of The Usefulness of Natural Philosophy to the Mind of Man, though by my addressing them all the way to the Gentleman I call Pyrophilus, they may seem to have been Originally written to the same Person, and about the same time with the Essays, that make up the Second Part; yet indeed a great Portion of the First part was written, as I remember, 10 or 12 years ago, (when I was scarce above 21 or 22 years old) to another Friend, to whom the Considerations that serv’d to confirm Piety, and excite Devotion, were far more acceptable then those that were more purely Physiologicall: so that having, whether through lazinesse, or want of leisure contented my self to substitute the name of Pyrophilus for that of my other Friend (who was not unwilling I should do so) in a Discourse written when I was so Young; I would not have the Reader think, that I do now so approve of all those Youthful Discourses (which I therefore suffer to pass abroad without a Name) as to think all the Tenets they propos’d to be irrefragable Truths, or all the Reasonings they contein, to be Demonstrative; & that I would at present have my Judgment estimated according to their Cogency. But yet I do without much Reluctancy comply with those Friends, who would by no means consent, that the Five first Essays of this Treatise should not come forth with the Rest; partly because not writing all things for all Readers, I hold it not unfit to publish something to gratify those, who desire with me to be both excited and assisted to admire and praise the Great and VVise Author of all things; partly because the Treatise would seem main’d and incompleat, if the latter Essays should come abroad without the Rest; and partly too because Learned Men have been pleas’d to assure me, that those Essays are not destitute of Notions and Ratiocinations, that are not altogether vulgar or contemptible. However those Readers, that either cannot rellish, or at least desire not any thing, but what is meerly Physiologicall, may, thus advertis’d, passe by the former part of this Treatise, and content themselves to read over the Latter, though they who shall take the Pains to read Both, will not perhaps think their Labour lost: Since I have taken Care to leave even the former Part as little disfurnisht with Experiments and useful Notions, as, the Argument consider’d, I conveniently could. And since also for the Paucity of such things in the First Part, I have endeavoured to make amends in the Second, which is almost wholly Physiological; concerning which nevertheless I shall admonish the Reader. And indeed the whole Tenets that make up the following Book, are by no means to be look’d upon as Published for an acurate Treatise of the Usefulnes of true Physiology, but as Familiar Writings, that want only the formality of Salve and Vale to passe for Physiological and Medical Epistles; consisting of such loose Observations, as I thought might be this way preserv’d, and did not so properly belong to my other Writings as they seem’d fitted for the use, and whereto I have applyed them; namely, that being drawn up together into one Treatise, their Union might enable them to make the greater Impression, and might (somewhat at least) recommend that sort of Learning to a Beginner. And one thing that must be especially comprehended in this Admonition is, that the Particulars I have mentioned, to shew of what use Chymical Experiments may be to a Physitian, are not, possibly, the chiefest that even I could set down, if I were not restrained by some justifiable Considerations; especially ‘till I see what Entertainment, the things I now venture abroad, will meet with there: Some of those I reserve, appearing such to me, that I confesse I do not slight them enough to be fond of obtruding them upon the Publick, if I thought they would not be welcome to it. And I do so little desire to have, what I have written, looked upon as the most that can be said, to shew the Usefulness of Experimental Philosophy, that I scruple not to acknowledg there are things which incline me to suspect, that some in the world, though not particularly known to me, may have Arcana, to which most of the Processes I reserve, as well as all that is commonly known in Chymistry, may prove little more then Trifles.
← The Publisher to the Reader · Contents · Essay 1. Of Its Usefulness in Reference to the Mind of Man →