PREFACE.

It is the great prerogative of Mankind above other Creatures, that we are
not only able to _behold_ the works of Nature, or barely to _sustein_ our
lives by them, but we have also the power of _considering_, _comparing_,
_altering_, _assisting_, and _improving_ them to various uses. And as this
is the peculiar priviledge of humane Nature in general, so is it capable of
being so far advanced by the helps of Art, and Experience, as to make some
Men excel others in their Observations, and Deductions, almost as much as
they do Beasts. By the addition of such _artificial Instruments_ and
_methods_, there may be, in some manner, a reparation made for the
mischiefs, and imperfection, mankind has drawn upon it self, by negligence,
and intemperance, and a wilful and superstitious deserting the Prescripts
and Rules of Nature, whereby every man, both from a deriv'd corruption,
innate and born with him, and from his breeding and converse with men, is
very subject to slip into all sorts of errors.

The only way which now remains for us to recover some degree of those
former perfections, seems to be, by rectifying the operations of the
_Sense_, the _Memory_, and _Reason_, since upon the evidence, the
_strength_, the _integrity_, and the _right correspondence_ of all these,
all the light, by which our actions are to be guided is to be renewed, and
all our command over things it to be establisht.

It is therefore most worthy of our consideration, to recollect their
several defects, that so we may the better understand how to supply them,
and by what assistances we may _inlarge_ their power, and _secure_ them in
performing their particular duties.

As for the actions of our _Senses_, we cannot but observe them to be in