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SIR,
I Know you are Ingenious and Industrious, the Conjunction of two such Planets in your Youth doth presage much good unto you.
You are now entring upon the Theatre of the World, where e∣very one must act his part; what part you shall act, I know not▪ but if it be your fortune to act that of a Begger, do it with as much grace and comeliness as you can.
Never perplex your Head with the Schools, whether a Myriad of Angels can dance upon the point of a Needle; nor spend time in the finding out of the proportion be∣tween the Cylinder and the Sphere, though the Invention highly pleased Archimedes.
Neither will it become you to quarrel the Orthography of a Word, and whether we should write Foelix or Felix, but get to be so.
It will be an instance of great Prudence in you, to study Things which may be of Solid use, and come home to Business; the whole province of Learning is infested with Frivolous Disputations and Vain Impostures.
I must confess, the Speeulations of the Metaphysicks (which are nothing but the Needle-Work of Curious Brains) are exceeding plea∣sant: but pleasure without profit,
is a Flower without a Root.
And all the Philosophy in Ari∣stotle and Plato, or the Sublime Theorems of the Schools, will not pay one Debt,
Add to your own Stores from Observation and Experience, a-Way of Learning as far beyond that which is got by Precept, as the Knowledge of a Traveller ex∣ceeds that which is got by a Mapp.
The whole Universe is your Li∣brary, Conversation, Living Stu∣dies, and Observations, your best Tutors.
The New World of Experiments is left to the Discovery of Posterity; but it hath been the unhappy fate (which is great pity) of New In∣ventions to be undervalued; wit∣ness that Excellent Discovery of Columbus, with the great neglect which he under-went before and after it.