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of natural knowledge, I should have ac- 

 counted all the time mispent which had been em- 

 ployed therein \ for I ever thought it unworthy of 

 a man, who had an everlasting sou!, to furnish it 

 with such learning as either would die with the 

 body, and so become unuseful for his everlasting 

 state, or that, in the next moment after death* 

 would be attained without labour. 



3. My knowledge did not heighten my opinion of 

 myself: for the more i knew, the more I knew my 

 own ignorance. I was more and more convinced^ 

 that I was very ignorant, even in what I thought I 

 knew. And I found an infinite latitude of things, 

 which I did not know at all. Yea, the farther I waded 

 into knowledge, the deeper still I found it. And 

 it was with me, just as it was with a child, tha^ 

 thinks, if he could but come to such a field, or climb 

 to the top of such a hill, he should be able to touch 

 the sky. But no sooner is he come thither, than he 

 finds it as far oflj as it was before. Just so, while 

 my mind was pursuing knowledge, I found the object 

 Mill as far before me as it w as, if not much farther ; 

 and could no more attain the full and exact know, 

 ledge of any one subject, than the hinder wheel 

 of a chariot can overtake the former. Though I 

 knew much, that others were ignorant of, yet still I 

 found there was much more, whereof I was ignorant, 

 flian what I knew, even in the compass of the most 

 inconsiderable subject. And as my very knowledge 



