Thus have I made as it were a small globe of the intellectual world,
as truly and faithfully as I could discover; with a note and
description of those parts which seem to me not constantly occupate,
or not well converted by the labour of man. In which, if I have in
any point receded from that which is commonly received, it hath been
with a purpose of proceeding in melius, and not in aliud; a mind of
amendment and proficiency, and not of change and difference. For I
could not be true and constant to the argument I handle if I were
not willing to go beyond others; but yet not more willing than to
have others go beyond me again: which may the better appear by
this, that I have propounded my opinions naked and unarmed, not
seeking to preoccupate the liberty of men's judgments by
confutations. For in anything which is well set down, I am in good
hope that if the first reading move an objection, the second reading
will make an answer. And in those things wherein I have erred, I am
sure I have not prejudiced the right by litigious arguments; which
certainly have this contrary effect and operation, that they add
authority to error, and destroy the authority of that which is well
invented.
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