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Article THE TELEGRAPHE. ← Page 3 of 3 Article ON THE PROPRIETY OF SPECULATING ON FIRST PRINCIPLES. Page 1 of 2 →
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The Telegraphe.
persons employed in the business mi ght soon be brought to find out the proper letters for forming the prescribed words , as readily as a printer ' s compositor takes out his types and places them in * his composing stick . "When the communication is to take place during the night , it should then be effected by means . of transparent letters , or transthat is to
parencies ; say , the large . letters should be cut through large thin sheets of iron , and those ; sheets or large cut letters should be placed before a : vivid li ght or flame , care being at the same time taken to have the iron sheets placed in such a manner as to allow no li ght to pass except through tiiose cuts by which the large letters are expressed . The-words exhibited during the night by such large letters of fire or light , might be read from a very great distance indeed by means of a good telescope .
On The Propriety Of Speculating On First Principles.
ON THE PROPRIETY OF SPECULATING ON FIRST PRINCIPLES .
BY DR . AIKIN . TO resolve- things . into their first principles is philosophy , the noblest employment of the mind , ; and that which alone confers a title to real wisdom . Without a portion of it , the experience of a Jong life may onlserve to accumulate a . confused-mass of i-
y op nion , partly true , partly false , and leading to no one . certain conclusion . T . he want of a philosophic mind makes many men of business mere plodders , and many men of reading , and even of observation , mere retailers of vague unconnected notions . Order , precision , concatenation , analysis , are all the results of philosophy .. Yet even , thiswordall must have remarkedas well as those of improvement
, , and reformation , has . been , the subject of obloquy . It has been branded with the epithet of impious by the bigot , of arrogant by the cautious , and of visionary by the dull . It has drawn down the anathemas of the serious , and the ridicule of the light . Above all , it has been tieated with that ironical sneer , which is so common a resource to those who are conscious of being deficient in
argument . "Thank heaven I lam no philosopher ; I pretend not to be wiser than those who . have gone before me . I do not boast of the discovery of new principles . . ; I . must beg . leave to retain my antiquated notions' , notwithstanding- philosophers call them . prejudices . " These flowers of polemical rhetoric , which decorate so many sermons , speeches , and essays , though they have lost the attraction of novelty , are yet of no small efficacy in swaying trivial minds ; and the argumentum ad verecundiam . to which they appeal , is apt to overpower unassuming modesty .: Such a strain
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Telegraphe.
persons employed in the business mi ght soon be brought to find out the proper letters for forming the prescribed words , as readily as a printer ' s compositor takes out his types and places them in * his composing stick . "When the communication is to take place during the night , it should then be effected by means . of transparent letters , or transthat is to
parencies ; say , the large . letters should be cut through large thin sheets of iron , and those ; sheets or large cut letters should be placed before a : vivid li ght or flame , care being at the same time taken to have the iron sheets placed in such a manner as to allow no li ght to pass except through tiiose cuts by which the large letters are expressed . The-words exhibited during the night by such large letters of fire or light , might be read from a very great distance indeed by means of a good telescope .
On The Propriety Of Speculating On First Principles.
ON THE PROPRIETY OF SPECULATING ON FIRST PRINCIPLES .
BY DR . AIKIN . TO resolve- things . into their first principles is philosophy , the noblest employment of the mind , ; and that which alone confers a title to real wisdom . Without a portion of it , the experience of a Jong life may onlserve to accumulate a . confused-mass of i-
y op nion , partly true , partly false , and leading to no one . certain conclusion . T . he want of a philosophic mind makes many men of business mere plodders , and many men of reading , and even of observation , mere retailers of vague unconnected notions . Order , precision , concatenation , analysis , are all the results of philosophy .. Yet even , thiswordall must have remarkedas well as those of improvement
, , and reformation , has . been , the subject of obloquy . It has been branded with the epithet of impious by the bigot , of arrogant by the cautious , and of visionary by the dull . It has drawn down the anathemas of the serious , and the ridicule of the light . Above all , it has been tieated with that ironical sneer , which is so common a resource to those who are conscious of being deficient in
argument . "Thank heaven I lam no philosopher ; I pretend not to be wiser than those who . have gone before me . I do not boast of the discovery of new principles . . ; I . must beg . leave to retain my antiquated notions' , notwithstanding- philosophers call them . prejudices . " These flowers of polemical rhetoric , which decorate so many sermons , speeches , and essays , though they have lost the attraction of novelty , are yet of no small efficacy in swaying trivial minds ; and the argumentum ad verecundiam . to which they appeal , is apt to overpower unassuming modesty .: Such a strain