%% SEMBLANCE OF WISDOM. 



us into the chance of amendment. If we would 

 have the credit of being thought thinkers, (for the 

 course that we pursue is any thing but that which 

 will lead us to the reality), we must " look wise," 

 and turn up our eyes, and shut our ears, and, as 

 it were, barricade ourselves against every possible 

 intrusion of the external world. It is true that 

 there is no direct harm in a man's looking as wise 

 as ever he pleases, if so be his fancy though look- 

 ing wise is proverbially not one of the signs of 

 being wise ; but it is also true that men who always 

 closet themselves for abstruse thinking, not only 

 incapacitate themselves for active life, but defeat the 

 very object they have in view. They become moping 

 and absent ; and, following their own particular 

 study into holes and corners out of its connexion 

 and use, they get narrow and conceited views of it, 

 and not only make it repulsive to the more active 

 part of the world, but actually advance it less than 

 they would do if they treated it in a more popular 

 manner, and blended their thinking with more of 

 observation. 



It is true that observation and thought cannot 

 go equally together on all subjects of which even 

 the plainest man may have occasion to think. 

 Observation is chained to matter limited in time 

 and in space ; and, in all respects thought is free. 

 So that any man's personal observation is the 

 foundation of only a very limited portion of that 

 which he learns. But still it is the test by which 

 he tries the reality of the whole ; and the only 

 test by which he can try whether each part be 

 true, and deserve the name of knowledge. That 

 being the case, though we cannot extend our per- 

 sonal observation to every thing, the more ex- 



