Page:An Enquiry into the Present State of Polite Learning in Europe.djvu/20

 prove the head will insensibly influence the heart, a deficiency of taste and a corruption of manners are sometimes found mutually to produce each other.

from received opinions may frequently render this essay liable to correction, yet the reader may be assured that a passion for singularity never gives rise to the error. Novelty is not permitted to usurp the place of reason; it may attend, but shall not conduct the enquiry. The more original however any performance is, the more it is liable to deviate; for cautious stupidity is always in the right. In literature as in commerce the value of the acquisition is generally proportioned to the hazard of the adventure. I shall think therefore with freedom, and bear correction with candour. It is but just that he who dissents from others