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Untitled Article
by it , which under such ari arrangement it necessarily must be ; for in no science h $ ve discoveries proeeedfcdjin a succession corresponding with logical sequence , either of analysis or synthesis ; of no science , perhaps , could the truths he presented in more chaotic misarrangement than that which fchey occupy in
a chronological table . The inroads of philosophers on the territories of ignorance have been desultory , unequal , intermittent ; the plans of the original campaigns will afford but little guidance for the future , now that the territory has been partly explored and better occupied . The greater part of the history of most sciences is taken up
with the details of failures and mistakes ; the putting difficultly together the " disjecta membra " of abandoned systems ; the endeavours to reblow bubbles , once believed to be solid , in order to demonstrate over again that they are hollow . What a repository of such materials as these is the history of mental science ! Where precedence is given to this absolute rubbish ,
truth is deprived of the advantage of first impressions , an advantage which is never to be ? recovered after the mind has been jaded by the violent strains and wrenches to which it must submit in endeavouring painfully to recognise , first the plausibility , and then the fallaciousness of an exploded monstrosity , unassisted in either attempt by the possession of the light of the true system , which would at once display the cause and the nature of the aberration . . . * .
Let the corrected system be first acquired , — the simplicity of its truth uniting at once in the mind with whatever of truth is there—and then in the perusal of the history of systems , wrong and partially wrong , their real fabric will be evident as they arise ; their elements , will fall into their right position at once ; * nd from their ruins we shall derive illustration and
confirmationof truth , instead of having to dissociate a series of casually aggregated but strong prejudices , and run the chance ifter all of their roots not being thoroughly killed . ' It is said thpt the examination of such successive systems iffords iyh # lesQme exercise to the mind : —to the well equipped nind i £ does * to
, Theuse ^ fascience ^ whenitisacquired ^ stoguide us the easy inwiodiijg of future ambiguities and perplexities ; ami the past . mbiguities a « d perplexities afford us an opportunity of acquiring > eforehand thi ^ skil l of practically applying our acquisitions , iut the use $ f tl ? , e weapon of / science , as of those of the flesh , is to > e acquired by wielding it , and not by exposing ourselves unxmed tp thpjd ^ ngefjs against which it i » our only defence . But hei ^ a principle is moved , which involves considerations nA-rtgturd ^ O ^ titf ^ in ^ ena ^ ai ; ' ( Star indite important than the asy or inconvenient attachment of the essence of a particular
Untitled Article
& £ 0 Principle * fyforeHistory .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 1, 1837, page 280, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1831/page/25/
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