( 17 ) 
man capacity; but fcience is the falutary 
food of the human foul, and fhould there- 
fore be cultivated for its own fake, totally 
f-Megardlefs of its ufeful application. We are 
diftinguifhed from the brute creation only 
in proportion to our mental acquirements, 
and furely every intelligent being would 
wifli to remove himfelf as far as poffible 
from the brute creation. 
Young men are naturally vain and pofi- 
tive; dictatorial and dogmatical in their 
opinions, becaufe they have not learnt to 
reafon juftly, and becaufe they are unac- 
quainted with the arguments by which they 
might be refuted : and it frequently happens 
that they are confirmed in their errors by 
the contemptuous filence of Learning and 
Experience. I fpeak of young men in ge- 
neral. You have certainly too much pene- 
tration not to perceive the abfurdity of ju- 
venile arrogance. 1 dwell upon this fubjecT:, 
becaufe this arrogance is an infuperable ob- 
flacle to all knowledge. 
A young man, fortunately infpired with 
an enthufiaftic defire of knowledge, will be- 
gin by a fcrupulous inveftigation of the na- 
ture and degree of the learning which he 
brings to the univerfity. Probably he will 
B dif- 
