A Comparative View of the State and Faculties of Man, with Those of the Animal World (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1777. Excerpt: ... amusements, it always returns to its favourite object with double vigour.. But one of the principal misfortunes Of a great Understanding, when exerted in a speculative rather than in an active iphere, is its tendency to lead the Mind into too deep a fense of its own weakness and limited capacity. It looks into Nature with too piercing an eye, discovers every where difficulties imperceptible to a common Understanding, and finds its progress stopt by obstacles that appear insurmountable. This naturally produces a gloomy and forlorn Scepticism, which poisons the chearfulness of the temper, and, by the hopeless prospect it gives of improvement, becomes the bane of science and activity. This Sceptical Spirit, when carried into life, renders even Men of the best Understanding unfit for business. When they examine with the greatest accuracy all all the possible consequences of a step they are ready to make in life, they discover so many difficulties and chances against them, whichsoever way they turn, that they become flow and fluctuating in their resolutions, and undetermined in their conduct. But as the business of life is in reality only a conjectural art, in which there is no guarding against all possible contingences, a Man that would be useful to the public or to himself, must be at once decisive in his resolutions, and steady and fearless in carrying them into execution. We shall mention, in the last placeV among the inconveniences attendant on superior parts, that solitude in which they place a person on whom they are bestowed, even in the midst of society. Condemned in Business or in Arts to drudge. Without a Second and without a Judge. Pope. To To the few, who are judges of his abilities, he is an object: of jealousy and envy. The bulk of Mankind cons...