IX. The stranger approved of the whole, and every part of my explanation, and assured me, that by the context that followed what I had read, the intention of the author of that mysterious History, could be no other than what I had described it. But I told him I was not inclined to approve, nor could I approve of the whole and every part of its content; for that I observed in it some latitudinary expressions, which seemed to reflect upon, and were derogatory of the peripatetic doctrine, so I only acknowledged to him, that in the most essential parts, the thing seemed just and right. He replied, that as I was a Spaniard, and a sectary of the peripatetic school, my objection and the reasons for it might be admitted. Upon saying this, he took his leave of me, and pursued his journey, leaving me in a disposition to meditate on the subject of our conversation, and lay before the public, such reflections as should occur to me respecting the matter of it, which may be seen in the sequel of this discourse. SECT. III. X. The first thing that offers itself to our consideration, is the little or no progress, which natural reason, unassisted by experience, has made in the examination of the affairs of nature in the course of so many ages. Nature is as little understood in the schools at this day, as it was in the academies of Plato, of Lyceus, and of Aristotle. What secret have these academies developed? or what diminutive portion of this most extensive country have they discovered? What utility has the labours of so many men of excellent ingenuity, as have cultivated philosophy in the reasoning and speculative way, produced to the world? What art, either liberal or mechanical, of the many that are necessary for the service of man, or the good of the public, do we owe to speculative invention; and I might even say, what small advancement in any such art, has been derived from it? What document of the schools, has conduced to instruct a husbandman in the cultivation of his lands? They there talk much of causes, effects, productions, and dispositions of matter, but all this has not yet produced any maxim that can be relied on, for the most advantageous mode of cultivating the land, in order to dispose it to the production of this or that particular plant, nor to instruct us at what time it should be sown, nor in the least to inform us with regard to many other circumstances, that should be attended to in the raising it. Schoolmen, after the example of Aristotle, treat largely of qualities, which they place in a predicament apart, or by themselves; without having by this means, discovered any qualities at all, either in the mixtures, or the elements; but on the contrary, Aristotle has rather been miserably mistaken in those he attempted to point out, by his rules of proportion and combination; I mean in those that appertain to the air, and the water, as we have proved in another part of our works; and it would