... But if a man could
succeed, not in striking out some particular invention, however
useful, but in kindling a light in nature--a light that should in
its very rising touch and illuminate all the border regions that
confine upon the circle of our present knowledge; and so spreading
further and further should presently disclose and bring into sight
all that is most hidden and secret in the world--that man (I
thought) would be the benefactor indeed of the human race--the
propagator of man's empire over the universe, the champion of
liberty, the conqueror and subduer of necessities.
"For myself, I found that I was fitted for nothing so well as for
the study of Truth; as having a mind nimble and versatile enough to
catch the resemblances of things (which is the chief point), and at
the same time steady enough to fix and distinguish their subtler
differences; as being gifted by nature with desire to seek,
patience to doubt, fondness to meditate, slowness to assert,
readiness to reconsider, carefulness to dispose and set in order;
and as being a man that neither affects what is new nor admires
what is old, and that hates every kind of imposture.
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