CONCLUSION. 345 



oegan ; that they were never ignorant of this great truth, 

 never Joubted of it ; that it does not therefore appear what 

 is gained by researches from which no new opinion is learned, 

 and upon the subject of which no proofs were wanted. Now, 

 I answer, that by inves,ti gallon, the following points are 

 always gained in favor of doctrines even the most generally 

 acknowledged, supposing them to be true, namely, stability 

 and impression. Occasions will arise to try the firmness of 

 our most habitual opinions. And upon these occasions it is 

 a matter of incalculable use to feel our foundation, to find a 

 support in argument for what we had taken up upon au- 

 thority. In the present case, the arguments upon which 

 the conclusion rests are exactly such as a truth of universal 

 concern ought to rest upon. " They are sufficiently open to 

 the views and capacities of the unlearned, at the same thno 

 that they acquire nev/ strength and lustre from the dis- 

 coveries of the learned." If they had been altogether ab- 

 struse and recondite, they would not have found their way 

 to the understandings of the mass of mankind ; if they had 

 been merely popular, they might have wanted solidity. 



But, secondly, what is gained by research in the stabil- 

 ity of our conclusion, is also gained from it in iiwpression. 

 Physicians tell us, that there is a great deal of difference 

 between taking a medicine, and the medicine getting into 

 the constitution ; a difierence not unlike which, obtains with 

 respect to those great moral propositions which ought to form 

 the directing principles of human conduct. It is one thing 

 to assent to a proposition of this sort ; another, and a very 

 different thing, to have properly imbibed its influence. I 

 take the case to be this : perhaps almost every man living 

 has a particular train of thought, into which his mind glides 

 and falls, w^hen at leisure from the impressions and ideas that 

 occasionally excite it : perhaps, also, the train of thought 

 here spoken of, more than any other thing, determines the 

 character. It is of the utmost consequence, therefore, that 

 tins property of our constitution be w^ell regulated. Now it 

 1.5* 



