4*251 Recapitulation. 



tension of the commercial spirit; the unprecented 

 multiplication of the objects and means of mercan- 

 tile speculation; and the numerous temptations to 

 a life of action, rather than of study, have brought 

 more into vogue than formerly, that light, super- 

 ficial, and miscellaneous reading, which fits men 

 for the compting-house, and the scene of enterprize 

 and emolument, rather than the recondite inves- 

 tigations of the closet. 



There is also another cause which prevents in- 

 dividuals from acquiring the same depth of learn- 

 ing which was formerly attained. " The circle 

 of human intelligence, within an hundred years, 

 has been greatly extended : the objects of curious 

 speculation, and of useful pursuit, have multi- 

 plied: many new branches of abstract science 

 have been invented: many theories in physical 

 philosophy have been established: the mechanical 

 arts have received great enlargement and improve- 

 ment : criticism has had its principles rendered 

 more evident, and its application more exact: the 

 analysis of the human mind is now generally an 

 object of inquiry; and modern authors^ in volumi- 

 nous metaphysical treatises, in histories, in poems, 

 and in novels, unfold the seminal principles of vir- 

 tue and vice, and sound the depths of the heart 

 for the motives of human action. Of these ob- 

 jects of mental occupation, every man who is ele- 

 vated above the lower orders of society, is obliged 

 to know something, either by the love of novelty, 

 or by the shame of ignorance. But if the objects 

 of inquiry be numerous, each cannot be investi- 

 gated profoundly; the powers of the human mind 

 are finite, and the union of accuracy and universa- 

 lity of knowledge is a chimera. In this case, there- 

 fore, the search will not be for complete and sys- 

 tematic treatises, which examine a subject on all 

 Sides, and in its minutest parts, detect it in its most 



