CONCLUSION. 223 



or even nothing, is completed in it, I shall hold a 

 light reproof. ' How should that present finished 

 results which waits even now for its beginning? 

 A field ripe for the harvest does not yield loaves of 

 tread. 



We are in some degree sensible of the presump- 

 tion wj^ich may be involved in bold speculations 

 and large expectations of knowledge ; but we think 

 little of the presumption that is involved in denials 

 and in the assumption that we can mark out limits. 

 Our pride may pass if it will but wrap itself in the 

 cloak of humility. Yet I venture to say, that no 

 presumption of extravagant affirmation that has 

 shamed the past, equals in presumptuous arrogance 

 those bold negations and prophetic mappings out of 

 man's capacities, for which our own age will have 

 to blush. Nor does it affect this question, that the 

 men who have propounded these invertedly ambi- 

 tious doctrines have acted under the influence of 

 the best motives, and have been men of an eminent 

 modesty. Private conceit is seldom an accompani- 

 ment of eminent ability ; nor is there any reason to 

 believe that the most audacious speculators of former 



