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    314 Hints towards an Essay

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    nev $ t judging for themselves , fihit feiy&jg dh the judgment of others . We cannot kriow truth , and could not know that we knew it , if we did i- ^ -

    What mark does truth ! what bright distinction bear ? How do \ re know that ' what we know is true ? How shall we falsehood fly , and truth pursue ? POMFRET . Mr Webbe has noticed our inability to know truth , for near the conclusion of his efcsay he says , " Here , then , itt a few words lies our ultimate misfortune . First , as

    regards thought ; we cannot rtee to that point as to survey th ^ entire field of the truth at One glance , but can only see a small part at a time , and this vieiv is , fo r ever , the false one * Secondly , as regards the medium oi thought , we cannot handle thoughts in the gross , but only that epitome which

    language furnishes ; and thfe medium is , Jot ever , the faht one . We can therefore ne ^ er either , first—possess thoughts wholly just , nor , secondly- — deliver iustlv the thoughts we

    1 / v sj have . A scheme of philosophy entirely just of consonant to truth is , for these reasons , a mere chimera . " We arrive then at the conclusion that we can never know but relative truth , our only medium of knowledge being the senses , and this medium , with regard to all without Us , being for ever a false one ; but

    being true to us , we may put confidence in it relatively . If then we can but attain relative truth , it follows that truth for us , can never be more than opinion , and our inquiries must be turned from the abstract question of truth to that of opinion .

    SECTION III . Love of Truth and Falsehood .

    It may be a paradox , but I am convinced that the love of truth is acquired , and that of fiction natural . There is a tendency in the human mind to cheat itself with specious Uusions—to idealize , abstract , ind to personify—a tendency , o the supernatural—to have ecbutse to hyperphysical tpjeticies for the common phyncal operations — to leave he path of certainty for

    speculation . The operations of nature are too simple for mankind—they crave after the incomprehensible , and then eh < - deavour to comprehend it . * " There are no absurdities that do not find their champions , " says a quaint writer" He that has a design to Receive the world , shall hot fail of persons as ready to be deceived . The little regard arid love of truth in frieti is the

    » There would not be bo much harm in this , did not men presume to dogm&tUe it the unknowable y and from dogmatism to per « ecution , Is but a step . '

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 1, 1837, page 314, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1837/page/18/