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Article TO THE PRINTER OF THE FREEMASONS' MAGAZINE. Page 1 of 1 Article Untitled Page 1 of 2 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
To The Printer Of The Freemasons' Magazine.
TO THE PRINTER OF THE FREEMASONS' MAGAZINE .
Sin ,, If the following Essay should be deemed worthy of a place in 3 'our useful and instructive Magazine , it will animate me to send you one every Month . ' CAIITABRIGIENSIS .
Ar07001
An ESSAY concerning the ANCIENTS , and ihe Respect thai is due to Item . ; with an attempt to prove that-we should not enslave ourselves too nutch to their Gentians . A NT' 1-QUITY is ever venerableand justly challenges honour
, Ji ^_ and reverence , but yet there is au -essential discrimination between reverence and superstition : we may give our ascent to them as ancients , but not as oracles ; they may have our minds flexible and . easy , but certainly there is no manner of reason they should have them servilely fettered to their opinions . As we should nor distrust every tiling which they deliver-without proofj
where we cannot convince them of error , so likewise we may suspend our belief upon probability of their mistakes ; and where we find reason to dissent , we should respect truth rather than authority . Our ancestors suffer more by our implicit admiration , than b y our opposition to their errors : and indubitably our opinion of them is dishonourable , if we think they would rather have us followers of th-e-m than of truth . The greatest veneration we can display for the ancients , is by , following their example , which was not to sit down with
superstitious supineness , in fond admiration of the learning of their predecessors , but to canvass with the most rigid accuracy their various writings , to avoid their mistakes , and to use their . discoveries in order to enlarge the boundaries of knowledge . For instance , the celebrated Aristotle himself took great liberties iii censuring and reprehending the-errors and mistake ' s ofthe elder philosophers ; and therefor * I cannot discover any reason vAiy he should be allowed
, greater privileges than he himself allowed his predecessors . - No man can say , I am infallible ; for-error is the common lot of humanity . As for the truth of things time makes no alteration . Things ar-e still the same , let the time be past , present , or to come . Those things which we revere for their antiquity , what were they at their first-birth ? Were they falsetime cannot make them true ; were
, they tii-ie , time cannot make them more true . The circumstance therefore of time , with respect to truth and error , is altogether impertinent . Antiquity cannot privilege an error , and novelty cannot prejudice truth . In all ages , there have been those who with great ardour , zeal , and elegancy of sentiment , have declaimed against new things ,
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
To The Printer Of The Freemasons' Magazine.
TO THE PRINTER OF THE FREEMASONS' MAGAZINE .
Sin ,, If the following Essay should be deemed worthy of a place in 3 'our useful and instructive Magazine , it will animate me to send you one every Month . ' CAIITABRIGIENSIS .
Ar07001
An ESSAY concerning the ANCIENTS , and ihe Respect thai is due to Item . ; with an attempt to prove that-we should not enslave ourselves too nutch to their Gentians . A NT' 1-QUITY is ever venerableand justly challenges honour
, Ji ^_ and reverence , but yet there is au -essential discrimination between reverence and superstition : we may give our ascent to them as ancients , but not as oracles ; they may have our minds flexible and . easy , but certainly there is no manner of reason they should have them servilely fettered to their opinions . As we should nor distrust every tiling which they deliver-without proofj
where we cannot convince them of error , so likewise we may suspend our belief upon probability of their mistakes ; and where we find reason to dissent , we should respect truth rather than authority . Our ancestors suffer more by our implicit admiration , than b y our opposition to their errors : and indubitably our opinion of them is dishonourable , if we think they would rather have us followers of th-e-m than of truth . The greatest veneration we can display for the ancients , is by , following their example , which was not to sit down with
superstitious supineness , in fond admiration of the learning of their predecessors , but to canvass with the most rigid accuracy their various writings , to avoid their mistakes , and to use their . discoveries in order to enlarge the boundaries of knowledge . For instance , the celebrated Aristotle himself took great liberties iii censuring and reprehending the-errors and mistake ' s ofthe elder philosophers ; and therefor * I cannot discover any reason vAiy he should be allowed
, greater privileges than he himself allowed his predecessors . - No man can say , I am infallible ; for-error is the common lot of humanity . As for the truth of things time makes no alteration . Things ar-e still the same , let the time be past , present , or to come . Those things which we revere for their antiquity , what were they at their first-birth ? Were they falsetime cannot make them true ; were
, they tii-ie , time cannot make them more true . The circumstance therefore of time , with respect to truth and error , is altogether impertinent . Antiquity cannot privilege an error , and novelty cannot prejudice truth . In all ages , there have been those who with great ardour , zeal , and elegancy of sentiment , have declaimed against new things ,