ness, until his discoveries were received by the most scientific men in this, and every other civilized country.---Hartley, in the preface to his celebrated work, says, "I was not aware that the doctrine of necessity followed from that of association for several years after I had begun my inquiries, nor did I admit it without the greatest reluctance.-Professor Leslie, in the preface to his valuable treatise on "Heat," says, “I have found myself compelled to relinquish some preconceived notions, but I have not abandoned them hastily, nor till after a warm and obstinate defence I was driven from every post."-Lord Grenville in the introduction to his tract, published in 1828, on the supposed advantages of the sinking fund, of which in early life he was a powerful advocate, says, “To that opinion I long adhered, and even now, after a lapse of more than forty years, I feel it still painful to renounce so flattering a persuasion, but the interests of truth," &c. Such are

the struggles of a noble mind to discover that it has not erred in its researches; such its reluctance to see that its imagined intellectual wealth is real poverty, that the coin is counterfeit.

From such facts it appears, that tenacity in retaining opinion is not confined to the uneducated; and it may perhaps be safely inferred, as a general law of our nature, "that man is tenacious in retaining his opinions."

The opinions of philosophy are in accordance

with these facts.-If a man perfectly righteous, says Plato, should come upon earth, he would find so much opposition in the world, that he would be imprisoned, reviled, scourged, and, in fine, crucified by such, who, though they were extremely wicked, would yet pass for righteous men. To the same effect Lord Bacon says: We find among the Greeks, that they who first assigned the natural causes of thunder and storms, whilst the ears of men remained unaccustomed to such explanations, were condemned for impiety against the gods. Nor did those meet with much better fate from some eminent fathers of the Christian Church, who, upon infallible demonstration, which no man in his senses would now oppose, asserted the spherical figure of the earth, and consequently the existence of antipodes.

The cause of this tenacity is obvious, our opinions constitute always our intellectual and often our worldly wealth, and we do not like to be reduced either to intellectual or to worldly bankruptcy; we are, therefore, unless very opulent, tenacious in retaining the opinions which we have formed. Bacon in his "Essay on Truth," says, "If there were taken out of men's minds vain opinions, flattering hopes, false valuations and imaginations, it would leave the minds of a number of men poor shrunken things, full of melancholy and indisposition, and unpleasing to themselves. So, take from the aged Mahometan the opinion which he

has entertained through the whole of his life of Ali and Mahomet, and he may say with Isaac, "If I am bereft, I am bereft."

Such is the general cause of this tenacity, which appears in three forms: either in the belief that the opinion is right; or in attachment to the opinion from custom; or in attachment from interest.

The resistance by the lover of truth, from the belief that his opinion is well founded, is of no moment; convince him of his error and the illusion passes away. To him it is indifferent whether the three angles of a triangle are equal to two or to twenty right angles. The object of the philosopher is knowledge. He is ever cautious in the formation of his opinions. He balances reasons on both sides, turns back the first offers and conceits of the mind and does not accept anything until it is examined and tried. He is grateful for every acquisition, considers every discovery as a province subdued, and, when he at last decides, he has no attachment to the opinion that is formed but only to the truth which it contains. Knowing that error insinuates itself under the guise of truth through the same inlets by which truth is admitted, he is ever diffident of his attainments and blesses the detector of errors as a benefactor and a friend. With such men conquest of the reason is complete victory; but there are so few opulent in knowledge, that this is exceeding rare.-A friend told

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Sir Isaac Newton that a French philosopher had expressed his dissent from some opinions of Sir Isaac's. "Depend upon it," said Newton, "that his observations will be found most deserving attention."-Dr. Rawley, in his life of Lord Bacon, says, "In his conversations he contemned no man's observations but would light his torch at every man's candle."-To one who told Sir Matthew Hale of his detractors, he said, “Would have me punish those by whom I reap more benefit than by all my friends?"-" Did a person," said the Abbé de Rancé, "know the value of an enemy, he would purchase him with pure gold.". "There are ten faults in your composition," said Dr. Parr to Professor Porson; "I have no doubt of it," answered the Professor. "If you will reexhausted your

turn the paper when you have stock, I will double the number."

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Attachment to opinion from custom may be seen in every class of society, in the best educated as in the instance of Hartley, in the preface to his celebrated work; of Professor Leslie in his treatise on Heat; *and of Lord Grenville in his tract on the Sinking Fund,* and in the most common minds, of which instances occur every moment.†

* Ante, p. 47.

† A whimsical instance is mentioned by Smollet, in his novel of Peregrine Pickle, where

Attachment to opinion from interest appears in a variety of forms: sometimes it manifests itself in the love of money;-sometimes in the fear of the inconvenience which will attend the transition from one custom to another;-sometimes in the love of power;-sometimes in the dislike to the interruption of the pleasures of imagination;-and at all times when man is under the influence of a passion more powerful than the love of truth.

Prejudice from Love of Money.

The influence of the love of money is simply and beautifully stated in the New Testament, in the opposition at Ephesus to the introduction of Christianity. "After these things were ended, Paul purposed in the spirit, when he had passed

he says, "The Commodore was exceedingly afflicted with goblins, which disturbed his rest. It was only last night that he was awoke by spirits in the chimney. He rung his bell, called up all his servants, got lights, and made a thorough search. Tom Pipes put his hand up the chimney, and pulled out a couple of jackdaws, which, having fallen down the chimney, were flapping with their wings. There, an' please your honour,' said Pipes,' are the ghosts and spirits.' But the Commodore said, 'he knew a jackdaw as well as 'ere a man in the three kingdoms; and if there were jackdaws there were ghosts too."