Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
On The Propriety Of Speculating On First Principles.
of frothy insolence is best disconcerted by admitting it seriously as an honest confession of inferiority . I would say- — " I know you are not a philosopher—I never took you for one—your education and habits of life have * disqualified you from all pretensions to the character—your opinions are mere prejudices , and do not merit a refutation . " But if there be those who bona fide axe afraid of philosophy ,
because very mischievous doctrines have been propagated under its name , let them be told , that what they dread is only the use of reason in a large way , and upon the most important subjects *; and that , if on the whole , we are better for the gift of reason , though some abuse it , we are likewise better for aspiring to be philosophers , though some falsely , and for bad purposes , arrogate the title .
A very common topic in railing against philosophy is the extravagant and contradictory opinions held by the ancient schools of philosophers . But with whom ought they to be compared ? Not with those who have been enlightened by direct revelation , but with the vulgar and bigots of their own times , who implicifjy received all the absurdities which fraud and superstition had foisted into their systems of faith . If by the efforts of unaided philosophy , out of a people thus debased , could be raised a Socrates , an
Epictetus , an Antoninus ,, what honours short of divine are not due to it ? Nor have its services to ' mankind in latter ages been much less conspicuous ; for not to insist on the great advancements iti ait and science , which have orig inated from natural philosophy ( since they are" questioned by one ) , what man of enlarged ideas will deny , that the philosophy of tbe-human mind , of law , of commerceof governmentof moralsand 1 will add-of religionhave
, , , , , , greatly contributed to any superiority this age may claim over former periods ? If philosophy thus employed have occasioned some evils , a more correct and diligent use of the same will remove them . If erroneous conclusions have been drawn from a partial or premature induction of facts , they will be rectified by a future more extensive induction . After all , no medium can possibly be assigned
between reasoning freely , and not reasoning at ali—between submitting implicitily to . any human authority , and to now * . "We are placed in this world'with a variety of faculties , and of objects on which to exercise them . Doubtless , there are in nature limits which we cannot pass ; but what man shall presume to mark them out for other-men?—what man shall say to his fellow menI
, permit you to exercise your reason upon these objects , but 1 forbid you from exercising it on those ? Many , indeed , have so presumed ; but the friends of truth and mankind have ever resisted their usurped authority .
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
On The Propriety Of Speculating On First Principles.
of frothy insolence is best disconcerted by admitting it seriously as an honest confession of inferiority . I would say- — " I know you are not a philosopher—I never took you for one—your education and habits of life have * disqualified you from all pretensions to the character—your opinions are mere prejudices , and do not merit a refutation . " But if there be those who bona fide axe afraid of philosophy ,
because very mischievous doctrines have been propagated under its name , let them be told , that what they dread is only the use of reason in a large way , and upon the most important subjects *; and that , if on the whole , we are better for the gift of reason , though some abuse it , we are likewise better for aspiring to be philosophers , though some falsely , and for bad purposes , arrogate the title .
A very common topic in railing against philosophy is the extravagant and contradictory opinions held by the ancient schools of philosophers . But with whom ought they to be compared ? Not with those who have been enlightened by direct revelation , but with the vulgar and bigots of their own times , who implicifjy received all the absurdities which fraud and superstition had foisted into their systems of faith . If by the efforts of unaided philosophy , out of a people thus debased , could be raised a Socrates , an
Epictetus , an Antoninus ,, what honours short of divine are not due to it ? Nor have its services to ' mankind in latter ages been much less conspicuous ; for not to insist on the great advancements iti ait and science , which have orig inated from natural philosophy ( since they are" questioned by one ) , what man of enlarged ideas will deny , that the philosophy of tbe-human mind , of law , of commerceof governmentof moralsand 1 will add-of religionhave
, , , , , , greatly contributed to any superiority this age may claim over former periods ? If philosophy thus employed have occasioned some evils , a more correct and diligent use of the same will remove them . If erroneous conclusions have been drawn from a partial or premature induction of facts , they will be rectified by a future more extensive induction . After all , no medium can possibly be assigned
between reasoning freely , and not reasoning at ali—between submitting implicitily to . any human authority , and to now * . "We are placed in this world'with a variety of faculties , and of objects on which to exercise them . Doubtless , there are in nature limits which we cannot pass ; but what man shall presume to mark them out for other-men?—what man shall say to his fellow menI
, permit you to exercise your reason upon these objects , but 1 forbid you from exercising it on those ? Many , indeed , have so presumed ; but the friends of truth and mankind have ever resisted their usurped authority .