To the RIGHT HONOURABLE

THO

HOMAS

Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery,

Baron Herbert of Cardiff, Lord Rofs of Kendal, Par, Fitzhugh, Marmion, St. Quintin, and Shurland; Lord Prefident of his Majesty's most Honourable Privy Council, and Lord Lieutenant of the County of Wilts, and of South-Wales.

My LORD,

T

HIS Treatife, which is grown up under your Lordship's Eye, and has ventured into the World by your Order, does now, by a natural kind of Right, come to your Lordship for that Protection, which you feveral Years fince promised it. 'Tis not that I think any Name, how great foever, fet at the beginning of a Book, will be able to cover the Faults that are to be found in it. Things in Print must stand and fall by their own Worth, or the Reader's Fancy. But there being nothing more to be defired for Truth, than a fair unprejudiced Hearing, no-body is more likely to proA 2

cure

cure me that, than your Lord?hip, who are allowed to have got fo intimate an Acquaintance with her, in her more retired Receffes. Your Lordship is known to have so far advanced your Speculations in the most abftract and general Knowledge of Things, beyond the ordinary Reach or common Methods, that your Allowance and Approbation of the Defign of this Treatife, will at least preserve it from being condemned without Reading; and will prevail to have thofe Parts a little weighed, which might otherwife, perhaps, be thought to deserve no Confideration, for being fomewhat out of the common Road. The Imputation of Novelty is a terrible Charge amongst thofe who judge of Men's Heads, as they do of their Perukes, by the Fashion; and can allow none to be right, but the received Doctrines. Truth fcarce ́ever yet carried it by Vote any where at its first Appearance: New Opinions are always fufpected, and ufually oppofed, without any other Reason, but because they are not already common. But Truth, like Gold, is not the lefs fo for being newly brought out of the Mine. 'Tis Trial and Examination muft give it Price, and not any antique Fashion: And though it be not yet current by the publick Stamp; yet it may, for all that, be as old as Nature, and is certainly not the lefs genuine. Your Lordship can give great and convincing Inftances of this, whenever you please to oblige the Pablick with fome of thofe large and comprehenfive Difcoveries you have made of Truths hitherto unknown, unlefs to fome few, from whom your Lordship has been pleafed not wholly to conceal them: This alone were a fufficient Reafon, were there no other, why I fhould dedicate

dedicate this Efay to your Lordfhip; and its having fome little Correfpondence with fome Parts of that nobler and vast Syftem of the Sciences your Lordfhip has made fo new, exact, and inftructivé a Draught of, I think it Glory enough, if your Lordfhip permit me to boast, that here and there I have fallen into fome Thoughts not wholly different from yours. If your Lordship think fit, that, by your Encouragement, this fhould appear in the World, I hope it may be a Reafon, fome time or other, to lead your Lordship farther; and you will allow me to fay, that you here give the World an Earneft of fomething, that, if they can bear with this, will be truly worth their Expectation. This, my Lord, fhews what a Prefent I here make to your Lordship; juft fuch as the poor Man does to his rich and great Neighbour, by whom the Basket of Flowers or Fruit is not ill taken, though he has more Plenty of his own Growth, and in much greater Perfection. Worthlefs Things receive a Value, when they are made the Offerings of Refpect, Esteem, and Gratitude: Thefe you have given me fo mighty and peculiar Reasons to have, in the highest Degree, for your Lordship, that if they can add a Price to what they go along with, proportionable to their own Greatnefs, I can with Confidence brag, I here make your Lordship the richeft Prefent you ever received. This I am fure, I am under the greatest Obligations to seek all Occafions to acknowledge a long Train of Favours I have received from your Lordship; Favours, tho' great and important in themfelves, yet made much more fo by the Forwardness, Concern, and Kindness, and other obliging Circumstances, that

never failed to accompany them. To all this, you are pleased to add that which gives yet more Weight and Relish to all the reft: You vouchfafe to continue me in fome Degrees of your Esteem, and allow me a Place in your good Thoughts; I had almost said Friendship. This, my Lord, your Words and Actions fo conftantly fhew on all Occafions, even to others when I am absent, that it is not Vanity in me to mention what every Body knows: But it would be want of good Manners, not to acknowledge what fo many are Witnesses of, and every Day tell me, I am indebted to your Lordship for. I wish they could as easily affift my Gratitude, as they convince me of the great and growing Engagements it has to your Lordship. This I am fure, I fhould write of the Understanding without having any, if I were not extremely fenfible of them, and did not lay hold on this Opportunity to testify to the World, how much I am obliged to be, and how much I am,