tion, a judicious and well practis'd Trier will soon be able to discern the cause of it; and to rectify it, upon the next repetition. If the difference of time, or place, or matter, or Instruments, will not suffer the product to be just the same in all points; yet something else will result, that may prove perhaps as beneficial. If we cannot always arrive at the main end of our Labours, some less unsought Curiosities will arise. If we cannot obtain that which shall be useful for practice, there may something appear that may instruct.
It is stranger that we are not able to inculcate into the minds of many men, the necessity of that distinction of my Lord Bacon's, that there ought to be Experiments of Light, as well as of Fruit. It is their usual word, What solid good will come from thence? They are indeed to be commended for being so severe Exacters of goodness. And it were to be wish'd, that: they would not only exercise this vigour, about Experiments, but on their own lives, and actions: that they would still question with themselves, in all that they do, what solid good will come from thence? But they are to know, that in so large, and so various an Art as this of Experiments, there are many degrees of usefulness: some may serve for real, and plain benefit, without much delight: some for teaching without apparent profit: some for light now, and for use hereafter; some only for ornament, and curiosity. If they will persist in contemning all Experiments, except those which bring with them immediate gain, and a present harvest; they may as well cavil at the Providence of God, that he has not made all the seasons of the year, to be times of mowing, reaping and vintage.
