“No man would be so ridiculous as (since Columbus discovered the new world of America, as big as the old, since the enlarged knowledge of the North of Europe, the South and East of Asia and Africa, besides the new divisions, names, and inhabitants of the old parts,) to forbid the reading of any more Geography than is found in Strabo, or Mela; or, since the Portuguese have sailed to the Indias by the Cape of Good Hope, to admit of no other Indian commodities than what are brought on Camels to Aleppo; or if posterity shall find out the North-east or North-west way to Cathajo and China, or shall cut the Isthmus between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, will it be unlawful to use the advantage of such noble achievements? If any man love acorns since corn is invented, let him eat acorns; but it is very unreasonable he should forbid others the use of wheat. Whatever is solid in the writings of Aristotle, these new philosophers will readily embrace; and they that are most accused for affecting the new, doubt not but they can give as good an account of the old philosophy as their most violent accusers, and are probably as much conversant in Aristotle's writings, though they do not much value these small wares that are usually retailed by the generality of his interpreters.” A brief Account of the new sect of Latitudemen, by G. B. Oxford, 1662, p. 13, 14.
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