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"We

in the name of the Romish clergy, said, must destroy the press, or the press will destroy us." In the conclusion of his treatise on the Advancement of Learning, Bacon says, "It is the inseparable property of time, ever more and more to disclose truth;" and his Novum Organum contains the same observation, "Temporis filia dicitur veritas, non authoritatis."

The reason why knowledge must thus be triumphant over error is obvious. Man is not attached to error: it gains admission into his mind under the guise of truth, and sooner or later the impostor is detected. Knowledge must therefore in time gain the ascendancy over error; the length of time depending upon the intelligence of the country and liberty of speech. In this noble, happy country the reign of error is at an end.

Such has been the power of knowledge in her progress. In looking forward, the decline and fall of some or all of the many errors that now exist may be seen. Many years will not pass away before Mahometans will learn the error of taking opium and Christians of taking alcohol.-The abominations in the East will cease. Infants will not be thrown to the sharks in the Ganges, the mother looking on without a sigh or a tear. The Hindoo widow will not, amidst the dancing of maidens and the blessings of priests, light her own funeral pile :-these delusions will pass away.

PREJUDICE.

PREJUDICE.

ALTHOUGH error must in time be destroyed by knowledge, there are obstacles by which its progress ever has been, and more or less ever will be impeded; for it is so general, as almost to be a law of our nature, that "Man is tenacious in retaining his opinions." It matters not whether the opinion is well or ill founded, whether it is right or whether it is wrong, when once it is formed and rivetted in his mind, man will, if possible, retain it.

This truth, although very general, is not universal, for there are men wholly devoid of this tenacity, who, the moment they discover that they have been adoring an idol, will dash it to pieces. There are such instances, but they are extremely

rare.

In the investigation of this position let us proceed according to the only certain mode of discovering any truth :-By Facts---By the opinions of Intelligence, our consuls to advise ;-and By Reason, the dictator to command.

The peasants in a particular district in Italy

loaded their panniers with vegetables on one side, and balanced the opposite pannier by filling it with stones; and when a traveller pointed out the advantage to be gained by loading both panniers with vegetables, he was answered, "that their forefathers, from time immemorial, had so prepared their produce for market; that they were very wise and good men, and that a stranger shewed very little understanding or decency who interfered in the established customs of a country."-Shan O'Neill is said to have put some of his followers to death because they endeavoured to introduce the use of bread after the English fashion.*

that un

From facts of this nature it appears educated man is tenacious in retaining his opinions, but this tenacity is not confined to the uneducated, it extends to the philosopher. Linnæus came to England, with a letter of introduction from Boerhave to Sir Hans Sloane, which recommended him in the strongest terms, but neither he nor Dillerius shewed him such attention as might have been expected from those high testimonials. They looked upon him as a young innovator, who wished to overturn the old systems only to exalt his own name. Dillerius spoke of "who confounds all

him as the young man

botany," treating him with reserve and haughti

* Hume, v. 351.

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