368 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



What is, once more, that reafon, of which wc 

 boaft fo triumphantly ? As it is nothing more than 

 the relation of objects to our wants, it is reduced, 

 then, to mere perfonal intereft. Hence it is that 

 we have fo many family reafons, reafons of aflbci- 

 ations, reafons of ftate ; reafons of all countries, 

 and of all ages : hence it is, that the reafon of a 

 young man is one thing, and that of an old man 

 another; that the reafon of a woman differs from 

 that of a hermit, and a foldier's from a prieft's. 

 Every body, fays the Duke de la Rochefoucault, has 

 reafon (is in the right). Yes, undoubtedly, and it 

 is becaufe every one has reafon, that no one agrees 

 with another. 



This fublime faculty farther undergoes, from 

 the firft moments of it's expanfion, a (hock fo vio- 

 lent, that it is rendered, in fome fort, incapable of 

 penetrating into the field of Nature. I do not 

 fpeak of our methods and fyftems, which diffufe 

 falfe lights over the firft principles of human 

 knowledge, by (hewing us truth only in books, 

 involved in machinery, and difplayed on theatres. 

 I have faid fomethingof thofe obftacles, in the ob- 

 jections which I have ventured to propofe againft 

 the elements of our Sciences ; but the maxims in- 

 flilled into us from our earlieft infancy, make a 

 fortune, be the firft, are alone fufficient to fubvert 



our 



