Thus alarmed, I shuddered at my own corruption, and that pride by which I had been seduced, contributed to reclaim me. I was weary of continual irresolution, and a perpetual equipoise of the mind; and ashamed of being the favourite of those who were scorned and shunned by the rest of mankind.
I therefore retired from all temptation to dispute, prescribed a new regimen to my understanding, and resolved, instead of rejecting all established opinions which I could not prove, to tolerate though not adopt all which I could not confute. I forebore to heat my imagination with needless controversies, to discuss questions confessedly uncertain, and refrained steadily from gratifying my vanity by the support of falsehood.
By this method I am at length recovered from my argumental delirium, and find myself in the state of one awakened from the confusion and tumult of a feverish dream. I rejoice in the new possession of evidence and reality, and step on from truth to truth with confidence and quiet.
I am, Sir, &c.
Pertinax.
[!--Note--] ([55]) A Polish writer, whose "Logick" was formerly held in great estimation in this country, as well as on the continent.
No. 96.
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 1751.
Quod si Platonis musa personat verum,
Quod quisque discit, immemor recordatur.
Boethius.