CHAPTER XIV. Q5 used for this purpose. Thus while we relieve adull and heavy hour-by some alluring employments of the mind, our very diver- sions enrich our understandings, and ourpleasure is turned into profit. VII. In the pursuit of every valuable subject or knowledge, keep the end always in your eye, and be not diverted from it by every pretty trifle you meet with in the way. Some persons have such a wandering genius, that they are ready to pursue every incidental theme or occasional idea, till they have lost sight of their original subject. These are the men who when they are engaged inconversation, prolong their story by dwell- ing on every incident, and swell their narrative with long paren- theses, till they have lost their first design ; like a man who is sent in quest of some great treasure, but he steps aside to gather every flower he finds, or stands still to dig up every shining peb- ble he meets with in his way, till the treasure is forgotten and never found. VIII. Exert your care, skill and diligence about every sub- ject, and every question, in a just proportion to the importance of it, together with the danger and bad consequences of ignorance or error therein. Many excellent advantages flow from this one direction. 1. This rule will teach you to be very careful in gaining some general and fundamental truths both in philosophy, in re- ligion, and in human life; because they are of the highest mo- ment, and conduct our thoughts with ease into a thousand infe- rior and particular propositions. Such isthat great/ principle in natural philosophy, the doctrine of gravitation, or mutual ten- dency of all bodies toward each other, which Sir Isaac Newton has so well established, and from which he has drawn the solu- tion of a multitude of appearances in the heavenly bodies as well as on earth. Such is that golden principle of morality which our blessed Lord has given us, Do that to others, which you think just and reasonable that others should do to you, which is almost suffi- cient in itself to solve all cases of conscience which relate to our neighbour. Such are those principles in religion, that a. " ra- tional creature is accountable to his Maker for all his actions ; that the soul of man is immortal ; that there is a future state of happiness and of misery depending on our behaviour in thepre.. sent life, on which all our religious practices are built or sup. ported." We should be very curious in examining all propositions that pretend to this honour cf being general principles: and we should not without just evidence,admit into this rank mere mat- ters of common fame, or commonly received opinions ; no, nor the general determinations of the learned, or the established
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