102 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



branches of knowledge, labor under difficulties from which all other 

 sciences are exempt, since every attempt to analyze the phenomena 

 of human action and social life into their simpler elements — a pro- 

 cess essential to the study of any science — conflicts with received 

 opinions and shocks a morbid sense which claims a preternatural 

 character for the human race. 



4. That the labor performed in the interest of social progress is 

 unremunerative, and must usually be performed in the face of 

 strenuous opposition ; which is alone sufficient to deter most men, 

 however capable, from undertaking it. 



5. That true merit is generally content to remain in obscurity, 

 while the volatile elements of society thrust themselves into undue 

 prominence and exert a greatly disproportionate influence. 



6. That the mass of mankind wholly misconceive their own in- 

 terests, and are generally found siding with the party that seeks to 

 despoil them of their most valuable rights and liberties. 



7. That the past tendency of the human intellect has been to 

 ignore realities and waste its energies on empty speculations about 

 transcendental questions. 



8. That, while men have always had the most need, they have, 

 at the same time, manifested the least disposition to exercise their 

 intellectual faculties. 



9. That in the present state of scientific progress the discovery 

 of truth is rapidly distancing popular intelligence, so that it is im- 

 possible to assimilate the knowledge brought forth. 



And finally : 



10. That each and all of the many errors which the increasing 

 intelligence of the world has successively swept away, have been 

 defended to the last by at least a few of the most honored minds of 

 the age, and have at last been compelled tardily to succumb to a 

 sort of popular verdict, or to the combined force of the lesser lights 

 and younger heads, reluctantly declining to follow longer those to 

 whom they had been accustomed to look to for counsel and in- 

 tellectual guidance. 



