By the addition of... artificial Instruments and methods, there may be, in some manner, a reparation made for the mischiefs, and imperfeclion, 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
[A]ll the uncertainty, and mistakes of humane actions, proceed either from the narrowness and wandring of our Senses, from the slipperiness or delusion of our Memory, from the confinement or rashness of our Understanding, so that 'tis no wonder, that our power over natural causes and effects is so slowly improv'd, seeing we are not only to contend with the obscurity and difficulty of the things whereon we work and think, but even the forces of our own minds conspire to betray us.
[T]he footsteps of Nature are to be trac'd, not only in her ordinary course, but when she seems to be put to her shifts, to make many doublings and turnings, and to use some kind of art in indeavouring to avoid our discovery.
It seems not improbable, but that by these helps the subtilty of the composition of Bodies, the structure of their parts, the various texture of their matter, the instruments and manner of their inward motions, and all the other possible appearances of things, may come to be more fully discovered; all which the antient Peripateticks were content to comprehend in two general and ( unless further explain'd) useless words of Matter and Form.
[W]e may perhaps be inabled to discern all the secret workings of Nature, almost in the same manner as we do those that are the productions of Art, and are manag'd by Wheels, and Engines, and Springs, that were devised by humane Wit.
[I]in this present condition of knowledge, a man so qualified, as I have indeavoured to be, only with resolution, and integrity, and plain intentions of implying his Senses aright, may venture to compare the reality and the usefulness of his services, towards the true Philosophy, with those of other men, that are of much stronger, and more acute speculations, that shall not make use of the same method by the Senses.
It is said of great Empires, That the best way to preserve them from decay, is to bring them back to the first Principles, and Arts, on which they did begin. The same is undoubtedly true in Philosophy, that by wandring far away into invisible Notions, has almost quite destroy'd it self, and it can never be recovered, or continued, but by returning into the same sensible paths, in which it did at first proceed.
[A]ll my ambition is, that I may serve to the great Philosophers of this Age, as the makers and the grinders of my Glasses did to me; that I may prepare and furnish them with some Materials, which they may afterwards order and manage with better skill, and to far greater advantage.
...'tis not unlikely, but that we may find out wherein our Senses are deficient, and as easily find wayes of repairing them.
'Tis not unlikely, but that there may be yet invented several other helps for the eye, as much exceeding those already found, as those do the bare eye, such as by which we may perhaps be able to discover living Creatures in the Moon, or other Planets, the figures of the compounding Particles of matter, and the particular Schematisms and Textures of Bodies.
[T]e reason of its hardness and brittleness seems evident ,for since all the watery or liquid substance that moistn'd and toughn'd those Interstitia of the more solid parts, are evaporated and remov'd, that which is left behind becomes of the nature almost of a stone, which will not at all, or very little, bend without a divulsion or solution of its continuity.
[T]he Air in which we live, move, and breath, and which encompasses very many, and cherishes most bodies it encompasses... is the menstruum, or universal dissolvent of all sulphureous bodies.
[T]he dissolution of sulphureous bodies is made by a substance inherent, and mixt with the Air, that is like, if not the very same, with that which is fixt in Salt-peter.
[A]s there are these several parts that will rarifie and fly, or be driven up by the heat, so are there many others, that as they are indissoluble by the aerial menstruum so are they of such sluggish and gross parts, that they are not easily rarify'd by heat, and therefore cannot be rais'd by it. ...and this is that part which remains behind in a white body call'd Ashes, which contains a substance, or Salt, which Chymists call Alkali...
[A]s in other solutions, if a copious and quick supply of fresh menstruum, though but weak, be poured on, or applied to the dissoluble body, it quickly consumes it: So this menstruum o{ the Air, if by Bellows... be copiously apply'd...[it] is found to dissolve it as soon, and as violently as the more strong menstruum of melted Nitre.
Therefore... there is no such thing as an Element of Fire... but that that shining transient body which we call Flame, is nothing else but a mixture of Air, and volatil sulphureous parts of dissoluble or combustible bodies, which are acting upon each other...
[T]he number of the Pearls or Hemispheres in the clusters of this Fly, was neer 14000. ...Other Animals I observ'd to have yet a greater number, as the Dragon-Fly or Adderbolt: And others to have a much less company, as an Ant, &c. and several other small Flies and Insects.
[T]hose which they call the eyes of Crabs, Lobsters, Shrimps, and the like... are Hemispher'd, almost in the same manner as these of Flies are.
That each of these Pearls or Hemispheres is a perfect eye, I think we need not doubt, if we consider onely the outside or figure of any one of them, for they being each of them cover'd with a transparent protuberant Cornea, and containing a liquor within them, resembling the watry or glassie humours of the eye, must necessarily refract all the parallel Rays that fall on them out of the air, into a point not farr distant within them...
[T]here is such a modulation, or bending of the rayes of light, as I have call'd inflection, differing both from reflection, and refraction (since they are both made in the superficies, this only in the middle) and likewise, that this is able or sufficient to produce the effects I have ascribed to it.