And it is my _hope_, as well as
_belief_, that these my _Labours_ will be no more comparable to the
_Productions_ of many other _Natural Philosophers_, who are now every where
busie about _greater_ things; then my _little Objects_ are to be compar'd
to the greater and more beautiful _Works of Nature_, A Flea, a Mite, a
Gnat, to an Horse, an Elephant, or a Lyon.
* * * * *
MICROGRAPHIA,
OR SOME
Physiological Descriptions
OF
MINUTE BODIES,
MADE BY
MAGNIFYING GLASSES;
WITH
OBSERVATIONS and INQUIRIES thereupon.
* * * * *
Observ. I. _Of the Point of a sharp small Needle._
As in _Geometry_, the most natural way of beginning is from a Mathematical
_point_; so is the same method in Observations and _Natural history_ the
most genuine, simple, and instructive. We must first endevour to make
_letters_, and draw _single_ strokes true, before we venture to write whole
_Sentences_, or to draw large _Pictures_. And in _Physical_ Enquiries, we
must endevour to follow Nature in the more _plain_ and _easie_ ways she
treads in the most _simple_ and _uncompounded bodies_, to trace her steps,
and be acquainted with her manner of walking there, before we venture our
selves into the multitude of _meanders_ she has in _bodies of a more
complicated_ nature; lest, being unable to distinguish and judge of our
way, we quickly lose both _Nature_ our Guide, and _our selves_ too, and are
left to wander in the _labyrinth_ of groundless opinions; wanting both
_judgment_, that _light_, and _experience_, that _clew_, which should
direct our proceedings.
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