Ch. i. JVallace. Condor cet. 17 



think that the world is not yet prepared to receive 

 their sublime truths. 



On the contrary, a candid investigation of these 

 subjects, accompanied with a perfect readiness 

 to adopt any theory warranted by sound philoso- 

 phy, may have a tendency to convince them that, 

 in forming improbable and unfounded hypotheses, 

 so far from enlarging the bounds of human sci- 

 ence, they are contracting it ; so far from pro- 

 moting the improvement of the human mind, 

 they are obstructing it : they are throwing us 

 back again almost into the infancy of knowledge ; 

 and weakening the foundations of that mode of 

 philosophizing, under the auspices of which sci- 

 ence has of late made such rapid advances. The 

 late rage for wide and unrestrained speculation 

 seems to have been a kind of mental intoxication, 

 arising perhaps from the great and unexpected dis- 

 coveries, which had been made in various branches 

 of science. To men elate and giddy with such 

 successes, every thing appeared to be within the 

 grasp of human powers ; and under this illusion 

 they confounded subjects where no real progress 

 could be proved, with those where the progress 

 had been marked, certain and acknowledged. 

 Could they be persuaded to sober themselves with 

 a little severe and chastised thinking, they would 

 see that the cause of truth and of sound philoso- 

 phy cannot but suffer, by substituting wild flights 

 and unsupported assertions for patient investiga- 

 tion and well- supported proofs. 



VOL. ii.« c 



