concerning
_the roots of good and evil_, they had given, in my opinion, a great
light to that which followed; and specially if they had consulted with
nature, they had made their doctrines less prolix, and more
profound."--_Bacon. Dign. and Adv. of Learn._ book ii. What Lord Bacon
desired for the mere gratification of scientific curiosity, the welfare
of mankind now imperiously demands. Shallow systems of metaphysics have
given birth to a brood of abominable and pestilential paradoxes, which
nothing but a more profound philosophy can destroy. However we may,
perhaps, lament the necessity of discussions which may shake the
habitual reverence of some men for those rules which it is the chief
interest of all men to practise, we have now no choice left. We must
either dispute, or abandon the ground. Undistinguishing and unmerited
invectives against philosophy, will only harden sophists and their
disciples in the insolent conceit, that they are in possession of an
undisputed superiority of reason; and that their antagonists have no
arms to employ against them, but those of popular declamation. Let us
not for a moment even appear to suppose, that philosophical truth and
human happiness are so irreconcilably at variance. I cannot express my
opinion on this subject so well as in the words of a most valuable,
though generally neglected writer: "The science of abstruse learning,
when completely attained, is like Achilles's spear, that healed the
wounds it had made before; so this knowledge serves to repair the damage
itself had occasioned, and this perhaps is all it is good for; it casts
no additional light upon the paths of life, but disperses the clouds
with which it had overspread them before; it advances not the traveller
one step in his journey, but conducts him back again to the spot from
whence he wandered. Thus the land of Philosophy consists partly of an
open champaign country, passable by every common understanding, and
partly of a range of woods, traversable only by the speculative, and
where they too frequently delight to amuse themselves. Since then we
shall be obliged to make incursions into this latter tract, and shall
probably find it a region of obscurity, danger, and difficulty, it
behoves us to use our utmost endeavours for enlightening and smoothing
the way before us."[17] We shall, however, remain in the forest only
long enough to visit the fountains of those streams which flow from it,
and which water and fe