A

PROPOSITION

For the

ADVANCEMENT

Of

EXPERIMENTAL

Philosophy.

By A. COWLEy.

[design]

LONDON,

Printed by J. M. for Henry Herringman; and are to be sold at his Shop at the Sign of the Blew-Anchor in the Lower-Walk of the New-Exchange, 1661.

To the Honourable Society for the
Advancement of Experimental
Philosophy.

ΤΗ

He Author of the following discourse, having since his going into France allowed me to make it publick, I thought I should do it most right by presenting it to Your Considerations; to the end that when it hath been fully examin'd by You, and receiv'd such Additions or Alterations as You shall think fit, the Design thereof may be promoted by Your recommending the Practice of it to the Nation. I am, Your most humble Servant,

P. P.

A

The Preface.

LL Knowledge must either be of God, or of his Creatures, that is, of Nature; the first is called from the Object, Divinity; the latter, Natural Philosophy, and is divided into the Contemplation of the Immediate or Mediate Creatures of God, that is, the Creatures of his Creature Man. Of this latter kind are all Arts for the use of Humane Life, which are thus again divided: Some are purely Humane, or made by Man alone, and as it were intirely spun out of himself, without relation to other Creatures, such are Grammar and Logick, to improve his Natural Qualities of Internal and External speech; as likewise Rhetorick and Politicks (or Law) to fulfill and exalt his Natural Inclination to Society. Other are mixt, and are Mans Creatures no otherwise then by the Result which he effects by Conjunction and Application of the Creatures of God. Of these parts of Philosophy that which treats of God Almighty (properly called Divinity) which is almost only to be sought out of his revealed will, and therefore requires only the diligent and pious study of that, and of the best Interpreters upon it; and that part which I call purely Humane, depending solely

upon Memory and Wit, that is, Reading and Invention, are both excellently well provided for by the Constitution of our Universities. But the other two Parts, the Inquisition into the Nature of Gods Creatures, and the Application of them to Humane Uses (especially the latter) seem to be very slenderly provided for, or rather almost totally neglected, except onely some small assistances to Physick, and the Mathematicks. And therefore the Founders of our Colledges have taken ample care to supply the Students with multitude of Books, and to appoint Tutors and frequent Exercises, the one to interpret, and the other to confirm their Reading, as also to afford them sufficient plenty and leisure for the opportunities of their private study, that the Beams which they receive by Lecture may be doubled by Reflections of their own Wit: But towards the Observation and Application, as I said, of the Creatures themselves, they have allowed no Instruments, Materials, or Conveniences. Partly, because the necessary expence thereof is much greater, then of the other; and partly from that idle and pernicious opinion which had long possest the World, that all things to be searcht in Nature, had been already found and discovered by the Ancients, and that it were a folly to travel about for that which others had before brought home to us. And the great Importer of all Truths they took to be Aristotle, as if (as Macrobius speaks foolishly of Hippocrates) he could neither deceive nor be deceived, or as if there had been not only no Lies in him, but all Verities. O true Philosophers in one sence! and contented with a very Little! Not that I would disparage the admirable Wit, and worthy labours of many of the Ancients, much less of Aristotle, the most eminent among them; but it were madness to imagine that the Cisterns of men should afford us as much, and as wholesome Waters, as the Fountains of Nature. As we understand the manners of men by conversation among them, and not by reading Romances, the same is our case in the true Apprehension & Judgement of Things. And no man can hope to make himself as rich by stealing out of others Truncks, as he might by opening and digging of new Mines. If he conceive that all are already exhausted, let him consider that many lazily thought so hundred years ago, and yet nevertheless since that time whole Regions of Art have been discovered, which the Ancients as little dreamt of as they did of America. There is yet many a Terra Incognita behind to exercise our diligence, and let us exercise it never so much, we shall leave work enough too for our Posterity.

This therefore being laid down as a certain Foundation, that we must not content our selves with that Inheritance of Knowledge which is left us by the labour and bounty of our Ancestors, but seek to improve those very grounds, and adde to them new and greater Purchases; it remains to be considered by what means we are most likely to attain the ends of this vertuous Covetousness.

And certainly the solitary and unactive Contemplation of Nature, by the most ingenious Persons living, in their own private Studies, can never effect it. Our Reasoning Faculty as well as Fancy, does but Dream, when it is not guided by sensible Objects. We shall compound where Nature has divided, and divide where Nature has compounded, and create nothing but either Deformed Monsters, or at best pretty but impossible Mermaids. 'Tis like Painting by Memory and Imagination which can never produce a Picture to the Life. Many Persons of admirable abilities (if they had been wisely managed and profitably employed) have spent their whole time and diligence in commentating upon Aristotles Philosophy, who could never go beyond him, because their design was only to follow, not grasp, or lay hold on, or so much as touch Nature, because they catcht only at the shadow of her in their own Brains. And therefore we see that for above a thousand years together nothing almost of Ornament or Advantage was added to the Uses of Humane Society, except only Guns and Printing, whereas since the Industry of Men bas ventured to go abroad, out of Books and out of Themselves, and to work among Gods Creatures, instead of Playing among their Own, every age has abounded with excellent Inventions, and every year perhaps might do so, if a considerable number of select Persons were set apart, and well directed, and plentifully provided for the search of them. But our Universities having been founded in those former times that I complain of, it is no wonder if they be defective in their Constitution as to this way of Learning, which was not then thought on.

For the supplying of which Defect, it is humbly proposed to his Sacred Majesty, his most Honourable Parliament, and Privy Council, and to all such of his Subjects as are willing and able to contribute any thing towards the advancement of real and useful Learning, that by their Authority, Encouragement, Patronage, and Bounty, a Philosophical Colledge may be erected, after this ensuing, or some such like Model.