6 OBJECTS, ADVANTAGES, AND 



questions, that is, in receiving information, and in knowing more, in 

 being better informed than you were before. If you ever happen again 

 to see the same instrument or animal, you find it agreeable to recollect 

 having seen it before, and to think that you know something about it. 

 If you see another instrument or animal, in some respects like, but 

 differing in other particulars, you find it pleasing to compare them 

 together, and to note in what they agree, and in what they differ. 

 Now, all this kind of gratification is of a pure and disinterested nature, 

 and has no reference to any of the common purposes of life ; yet it is a 

 pleasure an enjoyment. You are nothing the richer for it ; you do 

 not gratify your palate or any other bodily appetite ; and yet it is so 

 pleasing that you would give something out of your pocket to obtain 

 it, and would forego some bodily enjoyment for its sake. The plea- 

 sure derived from science is exactly of the like nature, or, rather, it is the 

 very same. For what has just been referred to is in fact Science, which 

 in its most comprehensive sense only means Knowledge, and in its 

 ordinary sense means Knowledge reduced to a System; that is, arranged 

 in a regular order, so as to be conveniently taught, easily remembered, 

 and readily applied. 



The practical uses of any science or branch of knowledge are 

 Undoubtedly of the highest importance ; and there is hardly any man 

 who may not gain some positive advantage in his worldly wealth and 

 comforts, by increasing his stock of information. But there is also a 

 pleasure in seeing the uses to which knowledge may be applied, wholly 

 independent of the share we ourselves may have in those practical 

 benefits. It is pleasing to examine the nature of a new instrument, or 

 the habits of an unknown animal, without considering whether they 

 may be of use to ourselves or to any body. It is another gratification 

 to extend our inquiries, and find that the instrument or animal is use- 

 ful to man, even although we have no chance ourselves of ever bene- 

 fiting by the information . as, to find that the natives of some distant 

 country employ the animal in travelling ; nay, though we have no 

 desire of benefiting by the knowledge ; as, for example, to find that the 

 instrument is useful in performing some dangerous surgical operation. 

 The mere gratification of curiosity ; the knowing more to-day than we 

 knew yesterday ; the understanding what before seemed obscure and 

 puzzling ; the contemplation of general truths, and the comparing 

 together of different things, is an agreeable occupation of the mind ; 

 and, beside the present enjoyment, elevates the faculties above low 

 pursuits, purifies and refines the passions, and helps our reason to 

 assuage their violence. 



It is very true, that the fundamental lessons of philosophy may to 

 many at first sight wear a forbidding aspect, because to comprehend 

 them requires an effort of the mind somewhat, though certainly not 

 much, greater than is wanted for understanding more ordinary matters ; 

 and the most important branches of philosophy, those which are of the 

 most general application, are for that very reason the less easily fol- 

 lowed, and the less entertaining when apprehended, presenting as they 

 do few particulars and individual objects to the mind. In discoursing 

 of them, moreover, no figures will be at present used to assist the ima- 

 gination ; the appeal is made to reason, without help from the senses. 



