(3) History of Nature is of three sorts; of Nature in course, of
Nature erring or varying, and of Nature altered or wrought; that is,
history of creatures, history of marvels, and history of arts. The
first of these no doubt is extant, and that in good perfection; the
two latter are bandied so weakly and unprofitably as I am moved to
note them as deficient. For I find no sufficient or competent
collection of the works of Nature which have a digression and
deflexion from the ordinary course of generations, productions, and
motions; whether they be singularities of place and region, or the
strange events of time and chance, or the effects of yet unknown
properties, or the instances of exception to general kinds. It is
true I find a number of books of fabulous experiments and secrets,
and frivolous impostures for pleasure and strangeness; but a
substantial and severe collection of the heteroclites or irregulars
of Nature, well examined and described, I find not, specially not
with due rejection of fables and popular errors.
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