‘Tis now two or three years ago that they made the year ten days shorter in France.–[By the adoption of the Gregorian calendar.]–How many changes may we expect should follow this reformation! it was really moving heaven and earth at once. Yet nothing for all that stirs from its place my neighbours still find their […]

(Translated by Charles CottonEdited by William Carew Hazilitt1877) There is no desire more natural than that of knowledge. We try all ways that can lead us to it; where reason is wanting, we therein employ experience, “Per varios usus artem experientia fecit, Exemplo monstrante viam,” [“By various trials experience created art, example shewing the way.”–Manilius, […]

[Translated by Charles Cotton Edited by William Carew Hazilitt 1877] Almost all the opinions we have are taken on authority and trust; and ’tis not amiss; we could not choose worse than by ourselves in so weak an age. That image of Socrates’ discourses, which his friends have transmitted to us, we approve upon no […]