Boyle, Robert (1627-1691)

Occasional Reflections Upon Several Subjects

London

Printed by W. Wilson for Henry Herringman

1665

"We need not in this case, as in most others, make an uneasie Preparation to entertain our Instructors; for our Instructions are suddenly, and as it were cut of an Ambuscade, shot into our Mind, from things whence we never expected them, so that we receive the advantage of learning good Lessons, without the trouble of going to School for them, which, to many, appears the greatest trouble that is to be undergone, for the Acquist of Knowledge."

But, that which may much indear such Meditations, is, their suprizing ev'n him, whose Thoughts they are: For one of the chief accounts, upon which Wit it self is delightful, is, in very many cases, the unexpectedness of the things that please us; that unexpectedness being the highest Degree of Novelty, which, as I freshly noted, does exceedingly gratifie most Men's minds. We need not in this case, as in most others, make an uneasie Preparation to entertain our Instructors; for our Instructions are suddenly, and as it were cut of an Ambuscade, shot into our Mind, from things whence we never expected them, so that we receive the advantage of learning good Lessons, without the trouble of going to School for them, which, to many, appears the greatest trouble that is to be undergone, for the Acquist of Knowledge. But though these Irradiations of Light, be oftentimes sudden, as that which we receive from flashes of Lightning, yet 'tis not always upon the single account of this suddenness, that the Instructions, presented us by Occasional Meditations, have an unexpectedness; for oftentimes, the Subject that is consider'd, appears not to be any thing at all of Kin to the Notion it suggests. And there are many of these Reflections, whose Titles, though they name the occasion of them, do so little assist, ev'n an ingenious Reader, to ghess what they contain, that if you tell him what is treated of, he will scarce imagine, how such Thoughts can be made to have a Relation to such remote Subjects; And the Informations we receive from many Creatures, and Occurrences, are oftentimes extremely distant from what, one would conjecture to be the most obvious, and natural Thoughts those Themes are fitted to present us, though, when the Circumstances are throughly examin'd, and consider'd, the Informations appear proper enough: Thus, when a Navigator suddenly spies an unknown Vessel afar off, before he has hail'd her, he can scarcely, if at all, conclude what he shall learn by her, and he may from a Ship, that he finds perhaps upon some remoter coast of Africa, or the Indies, meet with Informations concerning his own Country, and affairs; And thus sometimes a little Flower may point us to the Sun, and by casting our eyes down to our feet, we may in the water see those Stars that shine in the Firmament or highest visible Heaven.
(pp. 15-17)

War::Ambuscade

Reading Joanna Picciotto, Labors of Innocence in Early Modern England. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2010), 277.

2 entries in ESTC (1665, 1669).

Occasional Reflections Upon Several Subjects, Whereto Is Premis'd a Discourse About Such Kind of Thoughts.(London: Printed by W. Wilson for Henry Herringman, 1665). <Link to ESTC><Link to EEBO-TCP>

07/28/2014