and Body are not only one natural Engine (as some have thought) of whose Motions of all Sorts, there may be as certain an Account given, as of those of a Watch or Clock; yet by long studying of the Spirits, of the Blood, of the Nourishment, of the Parts, of the Diseases, of the Advantages, of the Accidents which belong to human Bodies (all which will come within their Province) there may, without Question, be very near Guesses made, even at the more exalted and immediate Actions of the Soul; and that too, without destroying its spiritual and immortal Being.
These two Subjects, God, and the Soul, being only forborn, in all the rest they wander at their Pleasure: In the Frame of Men's Bodies, the Ways for strong, healthful, and long Life; in the Arts of Men's Hands, those that either Necessity, Convenience, or Delight have produced; in the Works of Nature, their Helps, their Varieties, Redundancies, and Defects; and in bringing all these to the Uses of human Society.
Sect. XII. Their Method of Inquiry.In their Method of inquiring, I will observe how they have behav'd themselves in Things that might be brought within their own Touch and Sight; and how in those, which are so remote, and hard to be come by, that about them they were forc'd to trust the Reports of others.
In the first Kind, I shall lay it down as their fundamental Law, that whenever they could possibly get to handle the Subject, the Experiment was still perform'd by some of the Members themselves. The want of this Exactness has very much diminish'd the Credit of former Naturalists; it might else have seem'd strange, that so many Men of Wit, setting so many Hands on work, being so watchful to catch up all Re-