Page:History of the Royal Society.djvu/73

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the Royal Society.
51

nouring them, to separate the certain Things in them, from the doubtful: For that shews, we are not so much carried towards them, by rash Affection, as by an unbyass'd Judgment. If we would do them the most Right, it is not necessary we should be perfectly like them in all Things. There are two principal Ways of preserving the Names of those that are past; the one, by Pictures; the other, by Children: The Pictures may be so made, that they may far nearer resemble the Original, than Children do their Parents; and yet all Mankind choose rather to keep themselves alive by Children, than by the other. It is best for the Philosophers of this Age to imitate the Antients as their Children, to have their Blood derived down to them; but to add a new Complexion, and Life of their own: While those, that endeavour to come near them in every Line, and Feature, may rather be called their dead Pictures or Statues, than their genuine Off-spring.

The End of the First Part.

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