XXXVI. There is another objection to experimental observations, which
is not more reasonable, or better founded than that we have just
mentioned, which is made by some superficial schoolmen, who say, that
these sort of enquiries, do not require reason and perspicuity, but
only eye-sight, diligence, and memory; on which account they condemn
them, as things not well calculated for the exertion of invention, and
ingenuity. But how little do these people know of the nature of those
physical experiments, or of the manner in which they are made, which have
employed the attention of so many learned and sublime spirits, of France,
Italy, England, and Germany. In order to discover whether any deceitful
appearance has crept in, they repeat every experiment many times over;
and invent many ingenious methods of examination, to find out, whether
the phenomenon proceeded from that cause, which at first sight it seemed
to be derived from, or whether it was the effect of some accidental, or
occult one. They make exact and nice combinations of their experiments,
and invent ingenious methods of comparing them one with another, and then
weigh in a most delicate balance, both the analogies, and the differences
between them, in order to derive with almost mathematical certainty, the
consequences to be deduced from them; and they peep into those crevices
of nature that are nearly imperceptible, that they may discern through
them, her inmost secrets; and I beyond comparison, find more delicate
ingenuity, and more perspicuity, in many of the experiments of the famous
Boyle, than I do in all the abstractions, and reduplications, of the most
subtle metaphysicians.