Talk:Transactions of the Geological Society, 1st series, vol. 2/Prelims

Title page quotation

The latin quotation from Bacon (Novum Organum, Prefatio 1620) which appeared on the title page of the Transactions from their inception, and later in the Quarterly Journal, was selected by the Council of 1811.

Quod si cui mortalium cordi et curæ sit, non tantum inventis hærere, atque iis uti, sed ad ulteriora penetrare; atque non disputando adversarium, sed opere naturam vincere; denique non belle et probabiliter opinari, sed certo et ostensive scire; tales, tanquam veri scientiarum filii, nobis (si videbitur) se adjungant.

The translation is as follows: (from [1])

'But if any human being earnestly desire to push on to new discoveries instead of just retaining and using the old; to win victories over Nature as a worker rather than over hostile critics as a disputant; to attain, in fact, to clear and demonstrative knowledge instead of attractive and probable theory; we invite him as a true son of Science to join our ranks.