ON THE NATURE OF CONSTANT THINGS,

THEIR SCIENCE, PRINCIPLES, AND PROPER

AFFECTIONS

A Disputation.

Two things can be considered necessary, in which a disputation on natural philosophy, so that it may be perfect and absolute in all its parts, must be engaged: the first is to teach what is the subject of this term, "natural philosophy"; the second is to explain more deeply the nature and the proper affections of things that fall into the consideration of natural philosophy. If, with God's help, we are able to achieve both in this disputation of ours, we shall have accomplished it.

CHAPTER ONE,

ON NATURAL PHILOSOPHY, THAT IT IS A HABIT OF THE MIND,

A SCIENCE EMBRACED BY ONE ULTIMATE SPECIES,

AND THAT IT TREATS OF THE NATURAL ENTITY.

CONCLUSION ONE.

A decorative drop cap 'P' is used.BY THE NAME OF NATURAL PHILOSOPHY, as the common opinion of philosophers holds, we mean a readiness or propensity, innate to the mind, for reasoning certainly and evidently about natural things and their affections. It is primarily consistent with this definition that,