PREFACE

as if no power or governance were needed there. This leads us quietly to acknowledge the Divine providence in these things and places either not at all, or certainly very little. Thus many imagine that in a room full of air, everything is still and resting, and consequently, that no power is needed there to keep us from harm. But if one were to show them the unbelievable force of the air that surrounds them; and that unless a higher wisdom and governance bridled its wild forces through a constant counter-force, it would crush them in a moment; and if one made them understand the terrible movements of light; which, if it were not bound to laws by which it spreads out, would set the entire terrestrial globe into the most consuming flames in a few minutes of time; who can doubt, if he is at all rational? that these people would thereby find reason to thank and glorify the greatness, wisdom, and power of a God; who alone preserves them in all these dangers and prevents them from perishing in such miserable ways.

§. 14. To be cured of these Vooroordeelen prejudices, what has been said teaches us that it is necessary to try to investigate the true state of things through experience. One must correctly form one's imagination according to the proofs that an undeniable experience teaches us, reflecting on them often. This will frequently make us feel the power of the great Ruler as if with our hands, if only we properly mark and notice it.

§. 15. The second of this last kind, which is indeed of good and necessary service in many circumstances, but used incautiously has corrupted many intellects and given occasion to fall, is a verkeerde maniere van Philofopheren wrong way of philosophizing; or rather, of teaching Natuurkunde natural science or physics to someone.

To this I first bring that kind of books which are indeed written with no evil intent; but which, if one wants to believe their authors, undertake to give a correct concept of the entire building of the world, of its whole composition, of all its visible and invisible parts, nothing excepted. They show in their way, with as much certainty as if the makers of these books had been present as secretaries when God created the world, how everything is arranged, moved, and maintained. What has often surprised me, and I saw it happen even with otherwise sensible gentlemen, was the claim to know even how everything became in the beginning, including everything found between the circumference of the starry heaven and its center.

If now someone unfortunately falls into the trap of starting to take what is said in these books for the actual truth, how can it be otherwise? He must think that to bring and preserve this glorious Heel-Al Universe in its elegant

order, no more wisdom was needed than this author of this book possessed. And how far this can, over time, lead many young and exuberant intellects away from the wonder and worship of God's infinite wisdom, many will easily be able to judge, and some know it by experience.

§. 16. To this wrong way of leading one's thoughts belongs also that method according to which one wants to derive all phenomena of Nature from a single onderftellinge supposition or hypothesis. How much occasion this imaginary way of Philofopheren philosophizing gives (once one begins to take it for the truth) to fall into improper thoughts of God's governing providence, is not difficult to show. This is because some intellects, finding that it costs them more labor to understand a major Mathematifche mathematical proposition or to solve an Algebraïfche queftie algebraic question than to imagine the causes and effects of all that belongs to the visible world according to this supposition; the great work of all creation appears to them easier to understand than some inventions of mathematicians. From this, a silent conclusion gradually springs up: that less wisdom was required for the ordinances of heaven and earth than is possessed by many men whom they consider great mathematicians. Therefore, the formidable Creator does not appear so very wonderful to them in His wisdom. This loss of dutiful reverence and respect for the great Maker of all has often been the first stumbling stone; over which some known to me first tripped and then fell.

Those who wander in this labyrinth are accustomed to doing their best diligently to entangle themselves even further; and to maintain their suppositions as much as possible against all convictions of contrary experiments. This is because it gives them a silent pleasure to be able to persuade themselves that, without having to spend so much effort and expense on experiences, their supposition can serve them as a true key to the hidden secrets of nature. And to avoid being brought into doubt about this from the observation that more than one Hypothefis hypothesis can be suitable to derive the same effects, as is known in Aftronomie astronomy and other cases, many are accustomed to setting this fundamental rule: That a supposition can be safely held as the most true because it is the simplest. This proof is of about the same strength as if someone, seeing a clock face moving in a room, wanted to judge it correctly proven that it was moved by a weight and not by a spring, because the former appeared to him as the simplest.

Finally, this hypothetical philosophy is all the more harmful because it necessarily requires (which again cannot happen without too slight a feeling for the works of the great Creator, and consequently for Himself) that one imagines having a thorough knowledge of everything.