Grounds of Natural Philosophy: Divided into Thirteen Parts / The Second Edition, much altered from the First, which went under the Name of Philosophical and Physical Opinions

Most Learned Societies,
All Books, without exception, being undoubtedly under your Iurisdiction, it is very strange that some Authors of good note, are not asham'd to repine at it; and the more forward they are in judging others, the less liberty they will allow to be judg'd themselves. But, if there was not a necessity, yet I would make it my choice, To submit, willingly, to your Censures, these Grounds of Natural Philosophy , in hopes that you will not condemn them, because they want Art , if they be found fraught with Sense and Reason. You are the Starrs of the First Magnitude , whose Influence governs the World of Learning ; and it is my confidence, That you will be propitious to the Birth of this beloved Child of my Brain, whom I take the boldness to recommend to your Patronage; and as, if you vouchsafe to look on it favourably, I shall be extreamly obliged to your Goodness, for its everlasting Life: So, if you resolve to Frown upon it, I beg the favour, That it be not buried in the hard and Rocky Grave of your Displeasure; but be suffer'd, by your gentle silence, to lye still in the soft and easie Bed of Oblivion, which is incomparably the less Punishment of the Two. It is so commonly the error of indulgent Parents, to spoil their Children out of Fondness, that I may be forgiven for spoiling This, in never putting it to suck at the Breast of some Learned Nurse, whom I might have got from among your Students, to have assisted me; but would, obstinately, suckle it my self, and bring it up alone, without the help of any Scholar: Which having caused in the First Edition, (which was published under the name of Philosophical and Physical Opinions ) many Imperfections; I have endeavoured in this Second, by many Alterations and Additions, (which have forc'd me to give it another Name) to correct them; whereby, I fear, my Faults are rather changed and encreased , than amended . If you expect fair Proportions in the Parts, and a Beautiful Symmetry in the Whole, having never been taught at all, and having read but little; I acknowledg my self too illiterate to afford it, and too impatient to labour much for Method.