224 MASCULINE BIRTH OF TIME. 



teaching, broken down the weight of the subjects taught, 

 it might, no doubt, have been matter of just indignation. 

 But in teaching inaptitude, it was natural to expect absur 

 dity. I, however, far different from such instructors, intend 

 to impart to you not fictions of imagination or shadows of 

 words, not a mixture of religion, not certain common-place 

 observations, or certain well known experiments adjusted 

 to conformity with fanciful theories, but to bind and place 

 at your command nature with her offspring about her; and 

 can this be supposed a theme fit to be debased by preten 

 sion or unskilfulness, or other defective treatment. So 

 may I exist, my son, and so may I extend the now de-; 

 plorably narrow limits of man s dominion over the universe 

 to the permitted boundaries (which is the only object of 

 my prayers among human things), as I shall disclose to 

 you these things with the fullest conviction, with the 

 deepest forecast of my mind, and after the profoundest 

 research into the present state of knowledge, in the method 

 of all others the most legitimate. &quot; And what,&quot; you will 

 say, &quot; is this legitimate method ? Have done with artifice 

 and circumlocution; show me the naked truth of your 

 design, that I may be able to form a judgment for myself.&quot; 

 I would, my dearest son, that matters were in such a state 

 with you as to render this possible. Do you suppose that 

 when all the entrances and passages to the minds of all 

 men are infested and obstructed with the darkest idols, 

 and these deep seated and burnt in, as it were, into their 

 substance, that clear and smooth spaces can be found for 

 receiving the true and natural rays of objects? A new 

 process must be instituted, by which to insinuate ourselves 

 into minds so entirely obstructed. For as the delusions of 

 the insane are removed by art and ingenuity, but aggra 

 vated by violence and opposition, so must we adapt our 

 selves here to the universal insanity. What? do even 

 those less difficult requisites pertaining to the legitimate 

 method of delivering knowledge, appear to you such light 

 and easy matters? That it be ingenuous, that is, afford 

 no handle or occasion for error ; that it have a certain native 

 and inseparable quality, both to conciliate belief, and repel 

 the injuries of time, so that the knowledge so delivered, 

 like a vigorous and healthy plant, may daily shoot and 

 thrive ; that it appear to place itself in, and adapt itself to 

 the situation of its proper and reasonable reader. Whether 

 I shall show in the sequel all these qualities or not, I 

 appeal to futurity. W. G: G. 



