The Great Instauration (Instauratio Magna)

such as it would not be difficult to find for one who sought to pour light upon his own name, not upon the minds of others. We have not (I say) used any force or snares upon the judgments of men, nor are we preparing them; but we lead them to things themselves, and to the bonds of things; so that they themselves may see what they have, what they argue, what they add, and what they contribute to the common store. But if we, in any matter, have believed wrongly, or have slumbered and paid less attention, or have failed on the way and broken off our inquiry; we nevertheless exhibit the things in such a way, naked and open, that our errors can be noted and separated before they infect the mass of the Sciences more deeply; and also so that the continuation of our labors may be easy and expeditious. And in this way, we believe we have established, for all time, a true and legitimate marriage between the Empirical and the Rational faculty (whose morose and ill-omened divorces and repudiations have disturbed everything in the human family).

Wherefore, since these are not within our own power; at the beginning of the Work, we pour forth most humble and most ardent prayers to God the Father, God the Word, and God the Spirit, that they, mindful of the miseries of the human race and of this pilgrimage of life, in which we spend a few and evil days, may deign to endow the human family with their new Alms, through our hands. And further, we humbly pray that human things may not interfere with divine; and that from the unlocking of the ways of the senses, and the greater kindling of natural light, no incredulity or darkness may arise in our minds regarding Divine mysteries: