140 ESSAYS anv OBSERVATIONS 
the inveftigation of truth, as it is to be wifh- 
ed; alittle more converfation and familiari- 
ty with Euclid and other geometricians, might 
be of good fervice to them, by accuftoming 
their. minds to the fteady purfuit of real 
knowledge: but if their higheft aim in life 
be vain difputation, and an oftentatious dif- 
play of their abilities, in attempting to in- 
volve the cleareft truths in doubt and uncer- 
tainty; better were it for them to throw away 
the rule and compafs altogether, and to ex- 
ercife their faculties on other fubjects, where 
there may be more room for fubtile evafions, 
and where miftakes, tho’ equally remote 
from truth, and perhaps of more pernici-: 
ous confequence to mankind, cannot, from 
the nature of the thing, be fo eafily detect- 
ed. . 
ART. 
