XXXIII. I am not ignorant that there are some schoolmen, who represent
the application to experiments, as disgraceful to, and beneath the
dignity of philosophy. But this is a most absurd error, for at this rate,
studying the imaginations of men, would be a more honourable occupation,
than ruminating on the works of God. In books of theory, we contemplate
human ideas; in natural entities, divine ones. Let reason now determine,
which is the most noble study.
XXXIV. The prince of philosophers, Aristotle, thought differently in this
respect to the present school ones, for he said, we should not disdain to
examine with our senses, the most trifling works of nature, for that we
should find in them all, marks of sublime wisdom, and just and beautiful
ingenuity: _Aggredi enim quæque sine ullo pudore debemus, cum in omnibus
naturæ numen, et honesium, pulchrumque insit ingenium._ For so it is,
that in the most humble plant, in the most vile insect, and in the most
rude rock, we see the traces of an omnipotent hand, and the marks of
infinite wisdom.
XXXV. Besides this, it is a matter of great importance to him who is in
search of truth, to chuse the path that leads directly on to his object,
and not to pursue that which will conduct him out of his way, although it
should to the eye, appear the most desirable, and the most pleasant to
walk through. There is no doubt, that a physician in a college, mounted
in a professional chair, and reading a lecture, makes a more pompous
figure, than when he is attending to, and observing the dissection of a
dead body in an hospital; but it is by attending to the dissection, that
he attains a knowledge of the situation and arrangement of the internal
parts of the body, which he could never have acquired, by reasoning or
disputing all his life long in a school. Ideal gold, is possessed in
imagination by lazy people, who while they are sleeping in their beds,
dream it is showered down on them; but the true ore, can only be acquired
by force of labour, and digging in the mines with diligence and industry.
And in no other manner, otherwise than in appearance only, can we attain
more, than that shadow of truth, which we call probability, for these
are the largest advances we can make, by the force of our imaginations
exerted in the retirements of the closet; and the truth itself, is only
to be found by scrutinizing sensible objects, and searching in them, for
the hidden secrets of nature.