Recapitulation. 307 



brought more into vogue than formerly that 

 light, superfieial, and miscellaneous reading, 

 which fits men for the counting house, and the 

 scene of enterprise and emolument, rather than 

 •the recondite investigations 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 a 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 mechani- 

 cal arts have received great enlargement and im- 

 provement : criticism has had its principles ren- 

 dered more evident, and its application more ex- 

 act: the analysis of the human mind is now ge- 

 nerally an object of inquiry; and modern authors, 

 in voluminous metaphysical treatises, in histories, 

 in poems, and in novels, unfold the seminal prin- 

 ciples of virtue and vice, and sound the depths of 

 the heart for the motives of human action. Of 

 these objects of mental occupation every man, 

 who is elevated above the lower orders of sooiet} , 

 is obliged to know something, eitlier by the lo\'e 

 of novelty, or by the shame of ignorance. But 

 if the objects of inquiry be numerous, each can- 

 hot be investigated profoundly; the powers of 

 the hiiman mind are finite, and the union of ac- 

 curacy and universality of knowledge is a chimera. 

 In this case, therefore, the search will not be for 

 complete and systematic treatises, which examine 

 ♦I subject on all sides, and in its minutest parts, 



X2 



