But here it will be immediately said, "What, must we give over thinking--be no longer rational creatures, and believe every lie that is told us?" By no means.--Let us be _really_ rational creatures--and, taught by experience, let us, in all our speculations on subjects which engage the passions, guard ourselves with the most anxious care against the risk of having our judgments warped by our desires.--There is no propensity of our nature of which the proper and modest indulgence is not beneficial to man, and which is not hurtful, when this indulgence is carried too far,--and if we candidly peruse the page of history, we shall be convinced that the abuse is great in proportion as the subject is important. What has been so ruinously perverted as the religious principle?--What horrid superstition has it not produced? The Reader will not, I hope, take it amiss that I presume to direct his attention to some maxims which ought to conduct a prudent man in his indulgence of a speculative disposition, and apply them to the case in hand. Whoever will for a while call off his attention from the common affairs of life, the _Curæ hominum, et rerum pondus inane_, and will but reflect a little on that wonderful principle within him, which carries him over the whole universe, and shows him its various relations--Whoever also remarks how very small a proportion his own individual existence bears to this immeasurable scene, cannot but feel an inexpressible pleasure in the contemplation of his own powers--He must rise in his own estimation, and be disposed to cherish with fondness this principle which so eminently raises him above all around him. Of all the sources of human vanity this is surely the most manly, the most excusable, and the most likely to be extravagantly indulged.--We may be certain that it will be so indulged, and that men will frequently speculate for the sake of speculation alone, and that they will have too much confidence in the results of this favourite occupation.--As there have been ages of indolent and abject credulity and superstition, it is next to certain that there are also times of wild and extravagant speculation--and when we see it becoming a sort of general passion, we may be certain that this is a case in point.