Here, as every where my intention is to be perfectly intelligible; I
have not digressed either from my theme or friend; I am neither poor
in stuff for thought, nor in thought for working; nor, (if I may be
permitted so to say) in skill for manipulating it. I have not been
idly musing, nor have I missed my road, but have kept the track
faithfully, and not departed from the way in which I was trained up.
All that I have been saying belongs to, and is derived from the
philosophy of my friend: yes, gentle Reader, all that is set before
thee in these well stored volumes. _Una est enim philosophia,
quascumque in oras disputationis regionesve delata est. Nam sive de
cœli naturâ loquitur, sive de terræ, sive de divinâ vi, sive de
humanâ, sive ex inferiore loco, sive ex æquo, sive ex superiore, sive
ut impellat homines, sive ut doceat, sive ut deterreat, sive ut
concitet, sive ut incendat, sive ut reflectat, sive ut leniat, sive ad
paucos, sive ad multos, sive inter alienos, sive cum suis, sive secum,
rivis est deducta philosophia, non fontibus._
[Footnote 2: CARTWRIGHT.]
We speak of the philosophy of the Porch, and of the Grove, and of the
Sty when we would express ourselves disdainfully of the Epicureans.
But we cannot in like manner, give to the philosophy which pervades
these volumes, a local habitation and a name, because the philosophy
of Doncaster would popularly be understood to mean the philosophy of
the Duke of Grafton, the Marquis of Exeter, and Mr. Gully, tho' that
indeed belongs not to Philosophy but to one of its dialects,
varieties, or corrupted forms, which are many; for example, there is
Fallosophy practised professionally by Advocates, and exhibited in
great perfection by Quacks, and Political Economists; Failosophy, the
science of those who make bankruptcy a profitable adventure;
Fellowsophy, which has its habitat in common rooms at Cambridge, and
Oxford; Feelosophy common to Lawyers and Physicians; Fillyosophy well
understood on the turf, and nowhere better than in Doncaster; and
finally the Foolosophy of Jeremy Bentham, and of all those who have
said in their hearts—what it saddens a compassionate heart to think
that even the Fool should say!
CHAPTER CLXVIII.
NE-PLUS-ULTRA-WHALE-FISHING. AN OPINION OF CAPTAIN SCORESBY'S. THE
DOCTOR DENIES THAT ALL CREATURES WERE MADE FOR THE USE OF MAN. THE
CONTRARY DEMONSTRATED IN PRACTICE BY BELLARMINE.
_Sequar quo vocas, omnibus enim rebus omnibusque sermonibus, aliquid
salutare miscendum est._
SENECA.
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