114

Verulamii

Atlantis.

T he D E DIC AT I ON.

This Honour was reserved for your Lordlhip ; and an Honour , per-mit me to call it, not at all unworthy the owning of the greatest Personliving; namely, the establishing and promoting real Knowledge ; and(next to what is divine') truly lo called; as far at least as human Na-ture extends towards the Knowledge of Nature, by enlarging her Em-pire beyond the Land of Spectres, Forms, Intentional Species, V -r-cuum, Occult Qualities, and other inadequate Notions ; which, bytheir obstreperous and noisy Disputes, affrighting, and (till of late)deterring Men from adventuring on farther Discoveries, confin’d themin a lazy Acquiescence, and to be fed with Fantalms and fruitless Spe-culations, which signify nothing to the fpccifick Nature of Things; so- xlid and useful Knowledge, by the Investigation of Causes, Princi-ples, Energies, ‘Powers, and Effects of Bodies and Things visible ;and to improve them for the Good and Benefit of Mankind.

My Lord, That which the Royal Society needs to accomplish anentire Freedom, and (by rendring their Circumstances more easy) ca-pable to subsist with Honour, and to reach indeed the glorious Ends ofits Institution, is an Establishment in a more fettled, appropriate, andcommodious Place; having hitherto (like the Tabernacle in the Wil-derness) been only ambulatory for almost Forty Years: But Solomonbuilt the first Temple; and what forbids us to hope, that as great aPrince may build Solomon’s House, as that great Chancellor (one ofyour Lordship’s Learned Predecessors) had defign’d the Plan-, therebeing nothing in that augufl and noble Model impossible, or beyond thePower of Nature and learned Industry.

Thus, whilst King Solomon’s Temple was consecrated to the God ofNature, and his true Worssiip, This may be dedicated, and let apartfor the Works of Nature ; deliver’d from thole Illusions and Impostors,that are still endeavouring to cloud and depress the true and substantialPhilosophy : A shallow and superficial Insght wherein (as that incom-parable Person rightly observes) having made so many Atheists ; whilsta profound and thorough Penetration into her Recesses (which is theBusiness of the Royal Society) would lead Men to the Knowledge andAdmiration of the glorious Author.

And now, my Lord, I expect some will wonder what my Meaningis, to ussier in a Trifle with so much Magnificence, and end at last in afine Receipt for the dressing of a Sallet with an handful of Pot-herbs IBut yet, my Lord, this Subjeff , as low and despicable as it appears,challenges a Part of Natural History ; and the greatest Princes havethought it no Disgrace, not only to make it their SDiverston, but theirCare, and to promote and encourage it in the midst of their weightiestAffairs: He who wrote of the Cedar of Libanus, wrote also of theHysop which grows upon the Wall.

To verify this, how much might I fay of Gardens and Rural Etn-ployments, preferable to the Pomp and Grandeur of other Secular Buffness, and that in the Estimate of as Great Men as any Age has produe’d•And it is of such Great Souls we have it recorded, That after they hadperform’d the noblest Exploits for the Publick, they sometimes changtheir Sceptres for the Spade, and their Purple for the Gardiner’s Apr 0 **'And of these, some, My Lord , were Emperors , Kings, ConstW'Diffators, and Wife Statesmen ; who amidst the most important Afairs, both in Peace and War, have quitted all their Pomp and Dignityin Exchange of this Learned Pleasure: Not that of the most rest* *