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John 18. 37. "For this cause came I into the World, that I should bear witness unto the truth." (How precious & invaluable is truth! The love of it is a characteristic of the noblest minds. The pursuit of it is the labor of philosophy. The possession of it constitutes the highest felicity of Man; and the practice of it the perfection of his nature.) If, as an ancient Philosopher supposed, we can know nothing with certainty, but that nothing can be certainly known; if as a more daring (& erratic) modern unclear maintained, "every inquiry in philosophy ought to begin with doubt, nothing being taken for granted; & nothing believed without proof:" Truth must indeed lie, not only very deep & abstruse," but absolutely "beyond the reach of human capacity." As all proof derives its certainty from self-evident truths, which, in the nature of things, are themselves incapable of proof; if we are to begin all our inquiries in doubt, it is

• transcription note: words enclosed in parentheses are crossed out