For this purpose, let us consider the false
appearances that are imposed upon us by the general nature of the
mind, beholding them in an example or two; as first, in that
instance which is the root of all superstition, namely, that to the
nature of the mind of all men it is consonant for the affirmative or
active to affect more than the negative or privative. So that a few
times hitting or presence countervails ofttimes failing or absence,
as was well answered by Diagoras to him that showed him in Neptune's
temple the great number of pictures of such as had escaped
shipwreck, and had paid their vows to Neptune, saying, "Advise now,
you that think it folly to invocate Neptune in tempest." "Yea,
but," saith Diagoras, "where are they painted that are drowned?"
Let us behold it in another instance, namely, that the spirit of
man, being of an equal and uniform substance, doth usually suppose
and feign in nature a greater equality and uniformity than is in
truth. Hence it cometh that the mathematicians cannot satisfy
themselves except they reduce the motions of the celestial bodies to
perfect circles, rejecting spiral lines, and labouring to be
discharged of eccentrics.
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