But though admiration and respect may excite to inquiry, they cannot
supply the want of it. What, then, is to be done in order to enter
on this in a useful manner and one adapted to the loftiness of the
subject? Examples may serve in this as a warning and also for
imitation. The contemplation of the world began from the noblest
spectacle that the human senses present to us, and that our
understanding can bear to follow in their vast reach; and it ended- in
astrology. Morality began with the noblest attribute of human
nature, the development and cultivation of which give a prospect of
infinite utility; and ended- in fanaticism or superstition. So it is
with all crude attempts where the principal part of the business
depends on the use of reason, a use which does not come of itself,
like the use of the feet, by frequent exercise, especially when
attributes are in question which cannot be directly exhibited in
common experience. But after the maxim had come into vogue, though
late, to examine carefully beforehand all the steps that reason
purposes to take, and not to let it proceed otherwise than in the
track of a previously well considered method, then the study of the
structure of the universe took quite a different direction, and
thereby attained an incomparably happier result.
Pages:
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312