Among these papers is one which sums up his convictions about
the work before him, and the vocation to which he had been called in
respect of it. It is in the form of a "Proem" to a treatise on the
_Interpretation of Nature_. It was never used in his published works;
but, as Mr. Spedding says, it has a peculiar value as an authentic
statement of what he looked upon as his special business in life. It is
this mission which he states to himself in the following paper. It is
drawn up in "stately Latin." Mr. Spedding's translation is no unworthy
representation of the words of the great Prophet of Knowledge:
"Believing that I was born for the service of mankind, and
regarding the care of the Commonwealth as a kind of common property
which, like the air and water, belongs to everybody, I set myself
to consider in what way mankind might be best served, and what
service I was myself best fitted by nature to perform.
"Now among all the benefits that could be conferred upon mankind, I
found none so great as the discovery of new arts, endowments, and
commodities for the bettering of man's life.
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