touching the Operation
of the Universal Medicine, I
indeed cherefully, and willingly
grant, but as long as I am ignorant
of preparing the same rightly, I
do no other than attempt to carry
my Boat from a very small Lake,
into the Vast Ocean, because it
will certainly be driven back to the
Shore, without any Fruit. For although
many of those illustrious
Men have written somewhat
touching that laudable preparation,
yet they involved that in such a
Wrapper of shadowed Caution, as
the Footsteps of them latently demonstrated,
can be known by few
or none of the most diligent Readers,
who should follow them so
far, as until they come where they
would be. Also, who is so wealthy,
and well informed, as to be able,
and to know where to buy all
those Books, in which, here, and
there an Hypothesis of this kind is
handled: betides, you may consume
the greatest part of your life, before
you can gather thence any sufficient
knowledge, or the direct
manual Operation. Therefore it