The Great Instauration (Instauratio Magna)

that it seems necessary (lest anyone, through danger to the thing itself, should wish to be unjust to us) that men see to what extent they may think the right is permitted to them to form opinions or pass judgment concerning these things of ours, from that which we must necessarily assert (if indeed we wish to be consistent with ourselves): since we reject all that human reasoning which is premature, anticipatory, and rashly abstracted from things, and sooner than it ought (insofar as it concerns the investigation of Nature), as a thing that is inconsistent, perturbed, and badly constructed. Nor should it be demanded that one stand by the judgment of that which is itself called into judgment.