Lumen de Lumine

Indeed whiles wee follow our own Fansies, and build on bottomless unsettl'd Imaginations, wee must needs Wander, and grope in the Dark, like those that are Blindfolded. On the Contrarie, if wee lay the Line to our Thoughts, and examine them by Experience, wee are in the way to bee Infallible, for wee take hold of that Rule, which God hath propos'd for our Direction. In vain hath he made Nature, if wee dwell on our own Conceptions, and make no use of her Principles. It were a happy Necessity, if our thoughts could not varie from her wayes; but Certainly for us to think, that we can find the Truth by meer Contemplation without Experience, is as great a madnes, as if a Man should shut his Eys from the Sun, and then believe he can travaile directly from London to Grand Cairo, by fansying himself in the right way, without the Assistance of the Light. It is true, that no man enters the Magicall Schoole, but hee wanders first in this Region of Chimæra's: for the Inquiries which wee make before wee attain to Experimentall Truths, are most of them Erroneous. Howsoever wee should be so rationall, and patient in our Disquisitions, as not imperiously to obtrude and force them upon the world, before wee are able to Verifie them.