CilAPTËR Iii. d85 that is, impatience of study, and want of diligent attention in the search of truth. The dogmatist is in haste to believe something ; he cannot keep himself long enough in suspence, till some bright and convincing evidence appear on one side, but throws himself Casually into the sentiments of one party or another, and then he will hear no argument to the contrary. The sceptic will not take pains to search things to the bottom, but when he sees difficulties on both sides; resolves to believe neither of them. " Humility Of soul, patience in study, diligence in enquiry," with an honest zeal for truth, would go a great way towards the cure of both these follies. (3.) Another sort of temper that is very injurious to a right judgment of things, is an inconstant, fickle, changeable spirit, and a very uneven temper of mind. When such persons are in one humour, they pass a judgment of things agreeable to it : when their humour changes ; they reverse their first judgment, and embrace a new opinion. They have no steadiness of soul ; they want firmness of mind sufficient to establish themselves in any truth, and are ready to change it for the next alluring false- hood that is agreeable to their change of humour. This fickle- ness is sometimes- so mingled with their very constitution by na- ture, or by distemper of body, that a cloudy day and a lowering sky shall strongly incline them to form an opinion both of them- selves, and of persons and things round about them, quite differ- ent from what they believe when the sun shines, and the heavens are serene. This sort of people ought to judge of things and persons in their most sedate, peaceful, and composed hours of life, and reserve these judgments for their conduct at more unhappy seasons. (4) Some persons have a violent and turgid manner both of talking and thinking ; whatsoever they judge of it is always with a tincture of this vanity. They are always in extremes, and pro- nounce concerning every thing in the superlative. If they think a man to be learned, he is the chief scholar of the age ; if ano- ther has low parts, he is the greatest blockhead in nature ; if they approve any book on divine subjects, it is the best boo$ in the world next to the bible : if they speak of a storm of rain or hail, it is the most terrible storm that fell since the creation : and a cold winter day is the coldest that ever was known. But the men of this swelling language ought to remember, that nature has ten thousand moderate things in it, and does not always deal in extremes as they do. (5.) I think it may be called another sort of prejudice deriv- ed from humour, when some men believe a doctrine merely be-, cause it is ancient, and has been long believed ; others are so fond of novelty, that nothing prevails upon their assent so much t.e2
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