say of himself,-such was the modesty that adorned his elevated character,-that if his labours had in any degree benefited mankind, it was owing, not to any extraordinary endowments, but to patience and perseverance in his studies. And I know not a greater obstacle to success in our philosophical inquiries than a spirit of arrogance and presumption. When a young man fancies himself wiser than his teachers, or, when his desire of knowledge proceeds from vanity, and not from the love of truth, he may indeed acquire those superficial notions of things which will enable him to make a figure among those who are as frivolous and superficial as himself, but he can never reach great excellency, nor rise above the unsteady and borrowed light of others. He has not only imposed on himself, but unhappily the delusion is of such a nature, as to give it a permanent influence over his thoughts; and, in place of extending his views to all the grandeur and majesty of truth, his mind is darkened and narrowed by the pride and the superficiality of his reasonings. If men think justly or otherwise, in proportion as they think profoundly,and of the truth of this remark those only will doubt who are ignorant of the progress of knowledge, then the greatest barrier that can come between us and true wisdom, is the conceit that we are already wise*. My son," says the wise man, "let not truth forsake thee: bind it about thy neck; write it on the table of thine heart: so shalt thou find favour and good understanding in the sight of God and man. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine 66 * Multi ad scientiam pervenissent si se illuc pervenisse non putassent. own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and he shall direct thy paths. Be not wise in thine own eyes." Thus we shall advance in the dignity of thinking beings; and all our knowledge will be an instrument of greater usefulness, and a source of the greater happiness, that it is the possession of a mind which is lowly in its own estimation, and which has been purified from the evil influences of error. I am aware that one chief cause of the dogmatical spirit of young persons is owing to the good opinion which they wish others to entertain of their understanding. It is certain, however singular it may seem, that men in general would rather have an imputation directed against their moral feelings and conduct, than against their intellectual character. This is particularly the case with the young-they often affirm through ignorance that which they afterwards maintain from a false opinion of the excellency of their judgment. It were well if this precipitancy always terminated in speculation. It too frequently happens, however, that from mistaken notions of themselves and of what is due to their opinions, they are hurried along to such imprudences of conduct as affect the whole of their future respectability and happiness; and it is not till the calm hour of sober reflection return, that they can observe with unavailing regret the false steps they have taken. The voice of friendship had long warned them of their danger; they had themselves half suspected they were wrong; but that proud and unbending loftiness of spirit which cometh before a fall, urged them onwards in the course which they had chosen, lest their understanding should be implicated in the acknowledgment of their errors. Ignorance and inexperience have no small influence in producing this self-confidence. It is natural for those whose minds are beginning to open to be somewhat intoxicated with the new pleasures which they feel in the exercise of their faculties, and to be apt to think that in following their boldest conceptions, they will acquire to themselves the honour and the reputation of genius. They overlook the fact, that their judgment is not yet matured,-that it is for the greater part under the impulse of their feelings, and that men of wisdom and of age are diffident on those topics on which they so fearlessly dogmatize. The imagination throws its own illusive light over all the prospects that open up before them, and the friendly counsel of experience that would dispel the charm, so far as its influence is injurious, is too often regarded as the stern voice of years, proceeding from the absence of all generous and kindly affection. They are little aware how much this rashness prepares them to embrace the most dangerous errors, and how much it exposes them to a thousand perplexities which the experience of a friend could prevent, but which their own ignorance and pride of understanding render it impossible to avoid. Let me not be understood by these remarks as if I intended in the slightest degree to discountenance freedom of inquiry. I only wish to show that our inquiries cannot be free, unless accompanied with humility and an habitual love of truth. In pursuing any branch of knowledge these accompaniments are desirable; but they are essentially necessary when we attempt to ascertain those laws by which the Creator of the universe conducts his operations. We then place ourselves in the very attitude of scholars, prepared to receive all the communications of eternal wisdom: and our reason can never be more nobly employed, nor exercised more agreeably to the ends for which it has been given, than when contemplating with profound reverence the counsels and the works of Him whose judgment is unsearchable, and whose ways are past finding out. Our reason forms one of the fairest gifts of the Creator to the beings that he has formed after his own likeness, and to allow it to remain fettered by the prejudices of folly and of superstition, and not to place a due confidence in its cautious and enlightened deductions, is to treat ourselves with injustice, and the Divine Giver with ingratitude. In the second place, I may observe that in the successful prosecution of our philosophical pursuits in connexion with moral science, it will be of great use to us to take enlarged views of the boundaries of human knowledge. The possible boundaries of human knowledge are so widely distant, and so much removed from our present conceptions, that the ages are yet far distant that are to fix them. There is so much comprehended even in one branch of science, that a whole life-time is necessary for its thorough attainment. Astronomy forms but a very limited portion of natural philosophy; and yet how much study does it require to know all that astronomy teaches, and how numerous and continuous are the advances that must be made before a man is entitled to the reputation of an ac complished astronomer. What a wide field does even one of the branches of moral philosophy open for the labours of the most industrious and persevering student;-a field which extends into infinity, and on which our researches are bounded only by the points of view in which we consider it. The specu lations connected with either logic or belles lettres, or natural religion, or ethics, or political economy, seem to be interminable; and one of these divisions of the philosophy of mind will afford more than ample scope for all the energies and the application of the most laborious student. But though the limits of human knowledge aré placed far beyond the reach of our present attainments, there are many advantages resulting from our taking a wide and comprehensive view of all the sciences to which the progress of actual discovery has given rise. We can afford many of them only a superficial glance; but there is an useful expansion and elevation communicated to the mind by the exercise of its surveying the treasures of wisdom which the efforts of successive generations have amassed; and while raised above the level of other men, we look beyond their horizon, and satiate ourselves with the goodly prospects that on every hand surround us, we become more deeply impressed with the littleness of vulgar pursuits, and are led away with the charms of those lovely regions whose glories lie all before us 66 I Quid enim ei videatur magnum in rebus humanis, cui æternitas omnis, totiusque mundi nota fit magnitudo?" It is thus that the thirst for knowledge is |