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TO THE READER.

and down Nor did they think their Tains yet ill-bestow’d, ifthrough the assiduous Labour, and [ ’ a Train of continual Experi-ments, they wight at lajl furnijh, and leave solid and uncorruptMaterials to a succeeding, and more grateful Age, for the build-ing up a Body of real and substantial Philosophy, which shouldnever succumb to Time, but with the Ruins of Nature, and theWorld itself

IN order to this, how many , and almojl innumerable have beentheir Trials and Experiments, through the large andample^Fieldboth of Art and Nature ? We call our Journals, Registers, Corre-spondence, and Transactions, to witness ; and may with Modejlyprovoke all our Systematical Methodists, Natural Histories, andPretenders hitherto extant from the Beginning of Letters to thisPeriod, to jhew us so ample, so worthy, and so useful a ColleBion.

’Tis a Fatality and an Injury to be deplored, that those who giveus hard Words, will not first vouchsafe impartially to examinethese Particulars ; since all ingenuous Spirits could not but be abun-dantly satisfied, that this Illustrious Assembly has not met somany Years purely for Speculation only ; though 1 take even thatto be no ignoble Culture of the Mind, or Time mifpent , for Ten-sions who have so few Friends and fender Obligations to thosewho should patronize and encourage them : But they have aimedat greater Things, and greater Things produced , namely , by eman-cipating, and freeing themselves from the Tyranny of Opinion, de-lusory and fallacious Shews, to receive nothing upon Trust, butbring it to the Lydian Touch, make it pass the Fire, the Anvil,and the File, till it come forth perfeBly repurged, and of Con-silience. They are not hafiy in concluding from a single, or incom-petent Number of Experiments, to pronounce the Ecstatic Heureca,and offer Hecatombs ; but , after the mofi diligent Scrutiny, andby degrees , and wary Inductions honestly and faithfully made, torecord the Truth, and Event of Trials, and transmit them to Po-sterity. They resort not immediately to general Propositions, uponevery specious Appearance ; but fay for Light, and Informationfrom Particulars, and make Report de Facto, and as Sense informsthem. They rejeB no Sect 0/Philosophers, no methanick Helps ,except no Persons of Men ; but chearfully embracingfiSS., cull outof all, and alone retain what abides the Test ; that from a plen-tiful and well-furnijh’d Magazine of true Experiments, they mayin time advance to solemn and eflablijked Axioms, General Rulesand Maxims ; and a Structure may indeed lift up its Head , suchas may sand the Shock of Time, and render a solid Account ofthe Phænomena, and Effects of Nature, the aspectable Works ofGod, and their Combinations ; so as by Causes and Effects, cer-

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