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    Untitled Article

    Our anticipation of the future will be no less faulty than our recollection t ) f the past * or observation of the present , if we fall into the error in question . If we believe that the same causes will produce various effects , we shall be liable to expose ourselves to temptations under which we have formerly

    fallen , and weshall commit acts of imprudence in the vain hope that the consequences will not again be disastrous . We shall , with the impetuosity of our earlier years , rush into dangers of which experience has already warned us ; and , with the folly of childhood , expect grand results from trifling operations , and magnificent effects from inadequate causes . The most harmless form which this error assumes is the confidence with which the

    schfemer continues to multiply his expectations in proportion to their failure , and is ever looking for gratifications which never arrive . As happiness consists in the fall employment of our faculties in some pursuit , such a man as * this may enjoy a considerable portion , provided he takes care to involve ^ ione but himself in hii disappointments : but his happiness can bear no proportion , carteris paribus , ta that of a man who pursues well-defined objects by adequate means , and who guards himself against all failures but those which proceed from influences beyond his controul . If they both live

    to old age * the one will have obtained ample stores of knowledge , will have so enlarged his capacities of improvement as to be prepared to enter on the state which must next be revealed ; and , unruffled by disappointment , urimoved by anxiety , will calmly and cheerfully await the opportunity of exercising" his powers oil the objects of the unseen world . The other , ' unstabletifcall bis ways , confused in all his thoughts , will be tossed about by hog 6 s afed ffeafe i vague and groundless ; his experience will be worth little Wore ? tliari ' that ^ fith ^ new-born infant : and there is but too much reason to

    feW'thfct Whe 1 a ;; he exchanges this life for another , he will not only have almost every ' tfring to learn , but much to unlearn . This may be thought aa exaggerated picture . We put it as an extreme case : but it should be remembered 1 that the operation of causes , though often obscure , is as invariable in the' moral asiti the physical world , and that he who neglects the observation ^ them iri the one , is little likely to know much of their connexion in $ he other '

    Xn ^ outf observation of the relation of cause and effect , too much care canhot l * e fcxerciseslj lest bur views should be too confined , lest in our conviction of their invariable sequence , we should overlook the thousand circumstances which may intervene to modify the results for which we confidently look . ' If we watch ! the operation of one cause when many are at work , the f

    restitt will be different from what we expect . If we expect that a certain ag 0 nt r ^ il ^ produce a certain effect upon various bodies because it does upon Orte , iiP wW Believe that a scheme Which has been invariably successful , will always be so * under every change of circumstances , we deceive < nvrselves , and presumptuously imagine that we know m < 6 re than it ism bur power to ari

    kridw ^ d can judge more accurately thari ouif limited * capacity allows . A medicine '' Which cures a head-ache to-day , may aggravate'it to-morrow ; not because the * effects of the medicine are opposite * otlfer 'influenced remaining the same ; but ? because we have fewer ailments t ^ day than we shall have toi-moirtaw ; < , and our state of body being different , the effects of the * nedicihe will not be the same . In like mantver , a reproof ^ hteh will bfitig a child to tears ^ at one time , will produce no emotion * at another ; and laborious exertion which has hitherto met with its appropriate reward , may hereafter | t > e frustrated , through no fault of our own , and without inferring any breaeh- 'of

    Untitled Article

    Essays on the Art of Thinking . T 09

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1829, page 709, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2577/page/37/