And secondly, that these
experiments be not only esteemed which have an immediate and present
use, but those principally which are of most universal consequence
for invention of other experiments, and those which give most light
to the invention of causes; for the invention of the mariner's
needle, which giveth the direction, is of no less benefit for
navigation than the invention of the sails which give the motion.
(4) Thus have I passed through natural philosophy and the
deficiences thereof; wherein if I have differed from the ancient and
received doctrines, and thereby shall move contradiction, for my
part, as I affect not to dissent, so I purpose not to contend. If
it be truth,
"Non canimus surdis, respondent omnia sylvae,"
the voice of Nature will consent, whether the voice of man do or no.
And as Alexander Borgia was wont to say of the expedition of the
French for Naples, that they came with chalk in their hands to mark
up their lodgings, and not with weapons to fight; so I like better
that entry of truth which cometh peaceably with chalk to mark up
those minds which are capable to lodge and harbour it, than that
which cometh with pugnacity and contention.
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