To the Right Honourable

THOMAS Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery,

Baron Herbert of Cardiff, Lord Rofs of Kendal, Par, Fitzhugh, Marmion, St. Quintin, and Shurland; Lord-Prefident of his Majefty's moft Honourable Privy-Council, and LordLieutenant of the County of Wilts, and of South-Wales.

My LORD,

HIS Treatife, which is grown up under your Lordship's Eye, and has ventur'd into the World by your Order, does now, by a natural kind of Right, come to your Lord fhip for that Protection, which you feveral Years fince promis'd it. 'Tis not that I think any Name, how great foever, fet at the beginning of a Book, will be able to cover the Faults are to be found in it. Things in Print must stand and fall by their own Worth, or the Reader's Fancy. But there being nothing more to be defir'd for Truth, than a fair unprejudic'd Hearing, no body is more likely to procure me that, than your Lordship; who are allow'd to have got so intimate an Acquaintance with her, in her more retir'd Receffes. Your Lordship is known to have so far advanc'd your Speculations in the most abstract and general Knowledg of Things, beyond the ordinary Reach, or common Methods, that your Allowance and Approbation of the Defign of this Treatife, will at least preserve it from being condemn'd without reading;

and

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But

and will prevail to have those Parts a little weigh'd, which might otherwife, perhaps, be thought to deferve no Confideration, for being fomewhat out of the common Road. The Imputation of Novelty is a terrible Charge amongst thofe, who judg of Mens Heads, as they do of their l'erukes, by the Fashion; and can allow none to be right, but the receiv'd Doctrines. Truth fcarce ever yet carry'd it by Vote any where at its firft Appearance: New Opinions are always fufpected, and ufually oppos'd, without any other Reafon, but because they are not already common. Truth, like Gold, is not the lefs fo, for being newly brought out of the Mine. 'Tis Trial and Examination must give it Price, and not any antick Fashion: And tho' it be not yet current by the publick Stamp; yet it may, for all that, be as old as Nature, and is certainly not the lefs genuine. Your Lordship can give great and convincing Inftances of this, whenever you please to oblige the Publick with fome of those large and comprehenfive Discoveries you have made of Truths, hitherto unknown, unless to some few, to whom your Lordship has been pleas'd not wholly to conceal them. This alone were a fufficient Reason, were there no other, why I fhould dedicate this Effay to your Lordfhip; and its having fome little Correfpondence with fome Parts of that nobler and vast Syftem of the Sciences your Lordship has made fo new, exact, and inftructive a Draught of, I think it Glory enough, if your Lordship per- + mit me to boast, that here and there I have fallen into fome Thoughts not wholly different from your's. If your Lordfhip think fit, that, by your Encouragement, this fhould appear in the World, I hope it may be a Rcafon, fome time or other, to lead your Lordship farther; and you will allow me to fay, that you here give the World an Earneft of fomething, that, if they can bear with this, will be truly worth their Expectation. This, my Lord, fhews what a Present I here make to your Lordship; juft fuch as the poor Man does to his rich and great Neighbour, by whom the Basket of Flowers, or Fruit, is not ill taken, tho' he has more plenty of his own Growth, and in much greater Perfection. Worth-+ lefs Things receive a Value, when they are made the Offerings of Respect, Efteem and Gratitude: Thefe you have given me fo mighty and peculiar Reasons to have, in the highest

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degree, for your Lordship, that if they can add a Price to what they go along with, proportionable to their own Greatnefs, I can with Confidence brag, I here make your Lordship the richest Present you ever receiv'd. This I am fure, I am under the greatest Obligation to seek all Occasions to acknowledg a long Train of Favours, I have receiv'd from your Lordship; Favours, tho' great and important in themfelves, yet made much more fo by the Forwardness, Concern, and Kindness, and other obliging Circumstances, that never fail'd to accompany them. To all this, you are pleas'd to add that which gives yet more Weight and Relish to all the rest: You vouchsafe to continue me in fome Degrees of your Efteem, and allow me a Place in your good Thoughts; I had almost said, Friendship. This, my Lord, your Words and Actions so constantly shew on all Occafions, even to others when I am abfent, that it is not Vanity in me to mention what every body knows: But it would be want of good Manners, not to acknowledg what so many are Witnesses of, and every day tell me, I am indebted to your Lordship for. I wish they could as cafily affift my Gratitude, as they convince me of the great and growing Engagements it has to your Lordship. This, I am fure, I fhould write of the Understanding without having any, if I were not extremely sensible of them, and did not lay hold on this Opportunity to teftify to the World, how much I am oblig'd to be, and how much I am,

THE

EPISTLE

TO THE

READER.

READER,

Here put into thy bands, what has been the Diverfion of fome of my idle and heavy Hours: If it has the good luck to prove fo of any of thine, and thou hast but half fo much Pleasure in reading, as I had in writing it, thou wilt as little think thy Money, as I do my Pains, ill beftow'd. Miftake not this, for a Commendation of my Work; nor conclude, because I was pleas'd with the doing of it, that therefore I am fondly taken with it now it is done. He that hawks at Larks and Sparrows, has no lefs Sport, tho' a much less confiderable Quarry, than be that flies at nobler Game: And he is little acquainted with the Subject of this Treatife, the UNDERSTANDING, who does not know, that as it is the most elevated Faculty of the Soul, fo it is employ'd with a greater and more confiant Delight, than any of the other. Its Searches after Truth, are a fort of Hawking and Hunting, wherein the very Pursuit makes a great part of the Pleasure. Every step the Mind takes in its Progress towards Knowledg, makes fome Discovery, is not only new, but the best too, for the time at least:

For the Understanding, like the Eye, judging of Objects only by its own Sight, cannot but be pleas'd with what it discovers, having less Regret for what has fcaped it, because it is unknown. Thus he who has rais'd himself above the Alms-Basket, and not content to live lazily on Scraps of begg'd Opinions, fets his own Thoughts on work, to find and follow Truth, will (whatever he lights on) not miss the Hunter's Satisfaction: every moment of his Purfuit will reward his Pains with fome Delight, and he will have reason to think his time not ill spent, even when he cannot much boast of any great Acquifition:

This, Reader, is the Entertainment of those, who let loose their own Thoughts, and follow them in writing; which thou oughtest not to envy them, fince they afford thee an Opportunity of the like Diverfion, if thou wilt make ufe of thy own Thoughts in reading. 'Tis to them, if they are thy own, that I refer my felf: But if they are taken upon Truft from others, 'tis no great matter what they are; they not following Truth, but fome meaner Confideration. And 'tis not worth while to be concern'd, what he fays or thinks, who fays or thinks only as he is directed by another. If thou judgest for thy felf, I know thou wilt judg candidly; and then I shall not be harmed or offended, whatever be thy Cenfure. For tho' it be certain, that there is nothing in this Treatife, of the Truth whereof I am not fully perfuaded; yet I confider my felf as liable to Miftakes; as I can think thee; and know, that this Book muft ftand or fall with thee, not by any Opinion I have of it, but thy own. If thou findeft little in it new or inftructive to thee, thou art not to blame me for it. It was not meant for thofe that had already mafter'd this Subject, and made a thorow Acquaintance with their own Understandings; but for my own Information, and the Satisfaction of a few Friends, who acknowledg'd themselves not to have fufficiently confider'd it. Were it fit to trouble thee with the Hiftory of this Effay, I fhould tell thee, that five or fix Friends meeting at my Chamber, and difcourfing on a Subject very remote from this, found themselves quickly at a ftand, by the Difficulties that rofe on every fide. After we had a while puzzled our felves, without coming any nearer a Refolution of thofe Doubts which perplex'd us, it came into my Thoughts, that we took a wrong Course; and that before we set our felves upon Enquiries of that nature, it was necessary to examine our own Abilities, and fee what Objects our Understandings were, or were not fitted to deal with. This I propos'd to the Company, who all readily affented; and thereupon it was agreed, that this should be our firft Enquiry. Some hafty and undigested Thoughts, on a Subject I had never before confider'd, which I fet down against our next Meeting, gave the firft Entrance into this Difcourfe; which having been thus begun by Chance, was continu'd by Intreaty; written by incoherent Parcels; and, after long Intervals of Neglect, resumed again, as my Humour or Occafions permitted; and at laft, in a Retirement, where an Attendance on my Health gave me Leifure, it was brought into that Order thou now feeft it.

This discontinu'd way of writing, may have occafion'd, befides others, two contrary Faults, viz. That too little and too much may be faid in it. If thou findeft any thing wanting, I shall be glad that what I have writ gives thee any Defire that I should have gone farther: If it seems too much to thee, thou must blame the Subject; for when I first put Pen to Paper, I thought all I should have to fay on this matter, would have been contain'd in one Sheet of Paper; but the farther I went, the larger Profpect I had: new Discove ries led me fill on, and fo it grew infenfibly to the Bulk it now appears in. I will not deny, but poffibly it might be reduced to a narrower Compass than it is; and that fome Parts of it might be contracted: The way it has been writ in, by Catches, and many long Intervals of Interruption, being apt to cause fome Repetitions. But to confefs the Truth, I am now too lazy, or too busy to make it shorter.

I am not ignorant how little I herein confult my own Reputation, when I knowingly let it go with a Fault, fo apt to difguft the most judicious, who are always the niceft Readers. But they who know Sloth is apt to content it felf with any Excufe, will pardon me, if mine has prevail'd on me, where, I think, I have a very good one. I will not therefore alledg in my Defence, that

the