We Never Could Clearly Understand

Language, The Machine Of The Poet, Is Best Fitted For His Purpose In Its Rudest State. Nations, Like Individuals, First Perceive, And Then Abstract. They Advance From Particular Images To General Terms. Hence The Vocabulary Of An Enlightened Society Is Philosophical, That Of A Half-civilized People Is Poetical.

Only Imagine A Man Acting For One Single Day On The Supposition That All His Neighbors Believe All That They Profess, And Act Up To All That They Believe!

The Desire Of Posthumous Fame And The Dread Of Posthumous Reproach And Execration Are Feelings From The Influence Of Which Scarcely Any Man Is Perfectly Free, And Which In Many Men Are Powerful And Constant Motives Of Action.

The Upper Current Of Society Presents No Pertain Criterion By Which We Can Judge Of The Direction In Which The Under Current Flows.

How It Chanced That A Man Who Reasoned On His Premises So Ably, Should Assume His Premises So Foolishly, Is One Of The Great Mysteries Of Human Nature.