It Is The Invaluable Merit Of The

When We Contemplate The World Of Epicurus, And Conceive The Universe To Be A Fortuitous Jumble Of Atoms, There Is Nothing Grand In This Idea. The Clashing Of Atoms By Blind Chance Has Nothing In It Fit To Raise Our Conceptions, Or To Elevate The Mind. But The Regular Structure Of A Vast System Of Beings, Produced By Creating Power, And Governed By The Best Laws Which Perfect Wisdom And Goodness Could Contrive, Is A Spectacle Which Elevates The Understanding, And Fills The Soul With Devout Admiration.

Every Conjecture We Can Form With Regard To The Works Of God Has As Little Probability As The Conjectures Of A Child With Regard To The Works Of An Adult.

There Is No Greater Impediment To The Advancement Of Knowledge Than The Ambiguity Of Words. To This Chiefly It Is Owing That We Find Sects And Parties In Most Branches Of Science [and Politics]; And Disputes That Are Carried On From Age To Age, Without Being Brought To Issue.

Every Man Feels That Perception Gives Him An Invincible Belief Of The Existence Of That Which He Perceives; And That This Belief Is Not The Effect Of Reasoning, But The Immediate Consequence Of Perception. When Philosophers Have Wearied Themselves And Their Readers With Their Speculations Upon This Subject, They Can Neither Strengthen This Belief, Nor Weaken It; Nor Can They Shew How It Is Produced. It Puts The Philosopher And The Peasant Upon A Level; And Neither Of Them Can Give Any Other Reason For Believing His Senses, Than That He Finds It Impossible For Him To Do Otherwise.

A Definition Is Nothing Else But An Explication Of The Meaning Of A Word, By Words Whose Meaning Is Already Known. Hence It Is Evident That Every Word Cannot Be Defined; For The Definition Must Consist Of Words; And There Could Be No Definition, If There Were Not Words Previously Understood Without Definition.