He knows that it is indeed little compared with the ideal of attainable knowledge.

The human design, to which it is the function of the Royal Society to contribute, is laid as low, he says, as the profoundest depths of nature, and reaches as high as the uppermost storey of the universe, extends to all the varieties of the great world, and aims at the benefit of universal mankind.

Such a work can only proceed slowly, by insensible degrees.

It is an undertaking wherein all the generations of men are concerned, and our own age can hope to do little more than to remove useless rubbish, lay in materials, and put things in order for the building.

"We must seek and gather, observe and examine, and lay up in bank for the ages that come after." These lines on "the vastness of the work" suggest to the reader that a vast future will be needed for its accomplishment.