Page:Hunterian oration, delivered in the theatre of the Royal College of Surgeons in London on February 14th 1829 (electronic resource) (IA b2148305x).pdf/12

8 axiomata, are established, on which rests the foundation of every science.

We are endowed with senses to connect us with the external world. They are the medium of our intercourse with things; but it is so far as these produce either pleasure or pain, and warn us of the good or evil tendency of that which surrounds us. That acquaintance of things, which they introduce us to is indirect, and therefore imperfect. They are not preeminent in man, and, therefore, if the research depended on them, he has not the best means of arriving at truth. They vary in every individual in acuteness and in distinctness, and, therefore, information derived from them, must be fluctuating and uncertain, and incompetent to disclose the real nature of things. If the senses be assumed as. the standard of truth, in the research into the nature of things, what is the proof of the organ being most perfect for conveying the information?