C *3 3 



THOUGHTS 



O N 



i ' 



The PROBABILITY, EXPEDIENCY, and 

 UTILITY, of difcovering .a PASSAGE by the 

 NORT II P O L E c . 



TH E poffibility of making difcoveries in this way (that 

 is, by fleering directly North) though now treated as 

 paradoxical by many, was not, as will hereafter appear, formerly 

 looked upon in that light, even by fuch as ought to be re- 

 puted the propereff, judges. There have been a variety of 

 caufes that at different times have retarded undertakings of the 

 utraoft importance to the human fpecies. Among thefe we may 

 juftly confider the conduct of fome great philofophers, who, as 

 our judicious Verulam wifely obferves, quitting the luminous 

 path of experience to • inveftigate the operations of nature, by 

 their own fpeculations, impofed upon the bulk of mankind fpe- 

 cious opinions for inconteftable truths ; which being propa- 

 gated by their difciples, through a long feries of years, capti- 

 vated the minds of men, and thereby deprived them of that 

 great inftrument of fcience, the fpirit of enquiry d . In fuc- 

 ceeding ages a new impediment arofe from the fetting up profit 

 as the ultimate object of difcovery; and then, as might well 



c I have lately received thefe reflections from a learned friend, who is 

 now dcceafed, and who permittedjne to print them, though not to in- 

 form the public to whom they are indebted for this very valuable com- 

 munication. D. B. 



Baconi Opera, torn. IV. p. 100. ct alibi pajjim. But thefe paffages 

 may be found collected in Shaw's Abridgement of Bacon's Works, 

 vol. II. p. 52. 



be 



