INTENDED TO PRECEDE THE FOLLOWING ESSAY.
“If, in the paper herewith submitted, there may be any confusion, or supposed misapplication of terms, we claim our privilege. In old time, those who excelled in the sciences were called Sages, which was equivalent to our learned. This pedantic appellation, however, could not be tolerated by the modest Pythagoras, who, being merely an anxious searcher after knowledge, refused to arrogate to himself its actual possession, and therefore assumed the title of Philosopher, or Lover of Wisdom. He deserves immortal honor for this happy application of the word, yet we are not quite sure that he would have used it at all had he foreseen the consequences to which it has led. Ever since his day, it has become the custom to look upon all whose wild fancies are inexplicable, as “Philosophers;” and whenever a confused mass of nonsense is collected together, so heterogeneous that human ingenuity is at a loss to classify it, it is generally dubbed “Philosophy.” Whatever of incongruity, confusion, or misapplication may be detected in our essay, must, therefore, under the most approved customs of the times, be regarded as wonderfully philosophic, and being thus converted into a merit, we need add nothing in extenuation.”[2]
[2] NOTE.—The above introductory remarks, together with the paper which they accompanied, were read before the Association as the report of a Committee.—EDITOR.