and enlarge your Souls, that the Beauty of your Bodies is but a
secondary care, your Dress grows unconcerning, and your Glass is
ne’er consulted but in such little intervals of time as hang loose
between those hours that are destin’d to nobler Employments; you now
begin to throw off your old Prejudices and smile on ’em as antiquated
Garbs; false Reasoning won’t down with you, and glittering Non-sense
tho address’d to your selves in the specious appearance of Respect
and Kindness, has lost its _haut goust_; Wisdom is thought a better
recommendation than Wit, and Piety than a _Bon-mien_; you esteem a
Man only as he is an admirer of Vertue, and not barely for that he
is yours; Books are now become the finest Ornaments of your Closets,
and Contemplation the most agreeable Entertainment of your leisure
hours; your Friendships are not cemented by Intrigues nor spent in
vain Diversions, but in the search of Knowledge, and acquisition of
Vertuous Habits, a mutual Love to which was the Origin of ’em; nor
are any Friends so acceptable as those who tell you faithfully of your
faults and take the properest method to amend ’em. How much better are
you entertain’d now your Conversations are pertinent and ingenious,
and that Wisdom never fails to make one in your Visits? Solitude is
no more insupportable; you’ve conquered that silly dread of being
afraid to be alone, since Innocence is the safest Guard, and no Company
can be so desirable as GOD’s and his holy Angels conversing with an
upright mind; your Devotion is a Rational service, not the repetition
of a Set of good words at a certain season; you read and you delight
in it, because it informs your Judgments, and furnishes Materials for
your thoughts to work on; and you love your Religion and make it your
Choice because you understand it; the only Conquest you now design
and lay out your care to obtain is over Vice and Prophaneness; you
study to engage men in the love of true Piety and Goodness, and no
farther to be Lovers of your selves than as you are the most amiable
and illustrious examples of ’em; you find your Wit has lost nothing
of its salt and agreeableness by being employ’d about its proper
business, the exposing Folly; your Raillery is not a whit less pleasant
for being more Charitable, and you can render Vice as ridiculous as
you please, without exposing those unhappy Persons who’re guilty of
it; your Humour abates not of its innocent gaity now that it is more
upon the Guard, for you know very well that true Joy is a sedate and
solid thing, a tranquility of mind, not a boisterous and empty flash;
Instead of Creditors your doors are fill’d with indigent Petitioners
who don’t so often go without your Bounty as the other us’d to do
without their just demands; nor are you unjust to some under colour
of being Charitable to others, and when you give Liberally, give no
more than what is lawfully your own. You disdain the base ungenerous
Practice of pretending Kindness where you really mean none; and of
making a poor Country Lady less instructed in the formalities of the
Town than your selves, pay sufficiently for your seeming Civility and
kind Entertainment by becoming the Subject of your mirth and diversion
as soon as she is gone; but one may now pretty securely relie on your
Sincerity, for when this lower sort of Treachery is abhorr’d, there
can certainly be no place for that more abominable one of betraying
and seducing unwary Innocence. I do not question Ladies but that this
is the Practice of the greatest number of you, and would be of all
the rest were it not for some little discouragments they meet with,
which really are not so great as their own modesty and diffidence of
themselves represent ’em. They think they’ve been bred up in Idleness
and Impertinence, and study will be irksome to them, who have never
employ’d their mind to any good purpose, and now when they wou’d they
want the method of doing it; they know not how to look into their
Souls, or if they do, they find so many disorders to be rectified, so
many wants to be supplied, that frighted with the difficulty of the
work they lay aside the thoughts of undertaking it. They have been
barbarously us’d, their Education and greatest Concerns neglected,
whilst their imprudent Parents and Guardians were busied in managing
their Fortunes and regulating their Mien; who so their Purse was
full and their outside plausible, matter’d not much the poverty and
narrowness of their minds, have taught them perhaps to repeat their
Catechism and a few good Sentences, to read a Chapter and _say_
their Prayers, tho perhaps with as little Understanding as a Parrot,
and fancied that this was Charm enough to secure them against the
temptations of the Present world and to waft them to a better; and
so thro want of use and by misapplying their Thoughts to trifles and
impertinencies, they’ve perhaps almost lost those excellent Capacities
which probably were afforded them by nature for the highest things.
For such as these I’ve a a world of Kindness and Compassion, I regret
their misfortune as much as they can themselves, and suppose they’re
willing to repair it and very desirous to inform themselves were’t not
for the shame of confessing their Ignorance. But let me intreat them
to consider that there’s no Ignorance so shameful, no Folly so absurd
as that which refuses Instruction, be it upon what account it may. All
good Persons will pity not upbraid their former unhappiness, as not
being their own but other Peoples fault; whereas they themselves are
responsible if they continue it, since that’s an Evidence that they
are silly and despicable, not because they _cou’d_ not, but because
they _wou’d_ not be better Informed. But where is the shame of being
taught? for who is there that does not need it? Alas, Human Knowledge
is at best defective, and always progressive, so that she who knows the
most has only this advantage, that she has made a little more speed
than her Neighbours. And what’s the Natural Inference from hence? Not
to give out, but to double our diligence; perhaps we may out-strip
’em, as the Penitent often does him who needs no Repentance. The worst
that can be is the perishing in a glorious attempt, and tho we shou’d
happen to prove succesless, ’tis yet worth our while to’ve had such a
noble design. But there’s no fear of ill success if we are not wanting
to our selves, an honest and laborious mind may perform all things.
Indeed an affected Ignorance, a humorous delicacy and niceness which
will not speculate a notion for fear of spoiling a look, nor think
a serious thought lest she shou’d damp the gaity of her humour; she
who is so top full of her outward excellencies, so careful that every
look, every motion, every thing about her shou’d appear in Form, as
she employs her Thoughts to a very pitiful use, so is she almost past
hopes of recovery, at least so long as she continues this humour, and
does not grow a little less concern’d for her Body that she may attend
her Mind. Our directions are thrown away upon such a temper, ’tis to no
purpose to harp to an Ass, or to chant forth our Charms in the Ears of
a deaf Adder; but I hope there are none so utterly lost in folly and
impertinence: If there are, we can only afford them our Pity for our
Advice will do no good.
As for those who are desirous to improve and only want to be assisted
and put into the best method of doing it, somewhat was attempted in
order to do them that service in the former Essay, in which they may
please to remember that having remov’d that groundless prejudice
against an ingenious Education of the Women, which is founded upon
supposition of the impossibility or uselessness of it, and having
assign’d the reasons why they are so little improv’d, since they are
so capable of improvement, and since ’tis so necessary that others
as well as themselves shou’d endeavour it; which reasons are chiefly
Ill-nurture, Custom, loss of Time, the want of Retirement, or of
knowing how to use it, so that by the disuse of our Faculties we seem
to have lost them if we ever had any; are sunk into an Animal life
wholly taken up with sensible objects; either have no Ideas of the
most necessary things or very _false_ ones; and run into all those
mischiefs which are the natural Consequences of such mismanagement; we
then proceeded to propose a Remedy for these Evils, which we affirm’d
cou’d hardly be rectified but by erecting a Seminary where Ladies
might be duly Educated, and we hope our Proposition was such that all
impartial Readers are convinc’d it wou’d answer the Design, that is,
tend very much to the real advantage and improvement of the Ladies.
In order to which it was in general propos’d to acquaint them with
Judicious Authors, give them opportunity of Retirement and Recollection
and put them in a way of Ingenious Conversation, whereby they might
enlarge their prospect, rectify their false Ideas, form in their Minds
adequate conceptions of the End and Dignity of their Natures, not only
have the Name and common Principles of Religion floating in their Heads
and sometimes running out at their Mouths, but understand the design
and meaning of it, and have a just apprehension, a lively sentiment
of its Beauties and Excellencies; know wherein the Nature of a true
Christian consists; and not only feel Passions, but be able to direct
and regulate their Motions; have a true Notion of the Nothingness of
Material things and of the reality and substantialness of immaterial,
and consequently contemn this present World as it deserves, fixing
all their Hopes upon and exerting all their Endeavours to obtain the
Glories of the next. But because this was only propos’d in general, and
the particular method of effecting it left to the Discretion of those
who shou’d Govern and Manage the Seminary, without which we are still
of Opinion that the Interest of the Ladies can’t be duly serv’d, in the
mean time till that can be erected and that nothing in our power may be
wanting to do them service, we shall attempt to lay down in this second
part some more minute Directions, and such as we hope if attended to
may be of use to them.
THE
Second Part
OF THE
PROPOSAL
TO THE
LADIES.
CHAP. I.
_Of the Mutual Relation between Ignorance and Vice, and Knowledge
and Purity._
[Sidenote: Part I. page 22, _&c._]
What are Ignorance and Vice but Diseases of the Mind contracted in its
two principal Faculties the Understanding and Will? And such too as
like many Bodily distempers do mutually foment each other. Ignorance
disposes to Vice, and Wickedness reciprocally keeps us Ignorant, so
that we cannot be free from the one unless we cure the other; the
former part of this Proposition has been already shewn, and the latter
may easily be made apparent; for as every Plant does Naturally draw
such juices towards it as serve for its Nutrition, as every Creature
has an aptness to take such courses as tend to its preservation; so
Vice that spawn of the Devil, that _Ignis fatuus_ which can’t subsist
but in the dark night of Ignorance, casts forth Vapours and Mists to
darken the Soul and eclipse the clear light of Knowledge from her
View. And tho a Wicked Man may pretend to Wit, tho he have never so
much Acumen and Facetiousness of Humour, yet his Impiety proclaims
his Folly; he may have a lively Fancy, an Intriguing Cunning and
Contrivance, and so may an Ape or a Fox, who probably if they had but
Speech, tho destitute of Reason, wou’d outdo him in his own way; but
he wants the Ingenuity of a Man, he’s a Fool to all Rational Intents
and Purposes. She then who desires a clear Head must have a pure Heart;
and she who has the first in any Measure will never allow her self to
be deficient in the other. But you will say what degrees of Purity are
requisite in order to Knowledge, and how much must we Know to the end
we may heartily endeavour to Purify?
Now in Order to satisfie this demand I consider, That there are certain
Notices which we may call the Rudiments of Knowledge, which none who
are Rational are without however they came by them. It may happen
indeed that a habit of Vice or a long disuse has so obscur’d them that
they seem to be extinguish’d, but it does only _seem_ so, for were
they really extinguish’d the person wou’d be no longer Rational, and
no better than the Shade and Picture of a Man. Because as Irrational
Creatures act only by the Will of him who made them, and according to
the Power of that Mechanisme by which they are form’d, so every one
who pretends to Reason, who is a Voluntary Agent and therefore Worthy
of Praise or Blame, Reward or Punishment, must _Chuse_ his Actions and
determine his Will to that Choice by some Reasonings or Principles
either true or false, and in proportion to his Principles and the
Consequences he deduces from them he is to be accounted, if they are
Right and Conclusive a Wise Man, if Evil, Rash and Injudicious a Fool.
If then it be the property of Rational Creatures, and Essential to
their very Natures to Chuse their Actions, and to determine their
Wills to that Choice by such Principles and Reasonings as their
Understandings are furnish’d with, they who are desirous to be rank’d
in that Order of Beings must conduct their Lives by these Measures,
begin with their Intellectuals, inform themselves what are the plain
and first Principles of Action and Act accordingly.
By which it appears that there are some degrees of Knowledge necessary
before there can be _any_ Human Acts, for till we are capable of
Chusing our own Actions and directing them by some Principle, tho we
Move and Speak and do many such like things, we live not the Life of a
Rational Creature but only of an Animal. If it be farther demanded what
these Principles are? Not to dispute the Number of ’em here, no body I
suppose will deny us one, which is, _That we ought as much as we can
to endeavour the Perfecting of our Beings, and that we be as happy
as possibly we may_. For this we see is Natural to every Creature of
what sort soever, which endeavours to be in as good Condition as its
Nature and Circumstances will permit. And now we have got a Principle
which one would think were sufficient for the Conduct of our Actions
thro the whole Course of our Lives; and so indeed it were, cou’d we as
easily discern wherein our Happiness consists as ’tis natural to wish
and desire it. But herein lies our great mistake and misfortune, for
altho we all pursue the same end, yet the means we take to obtain it
are Indefinite: There needs no other Proof of this than the looking
abroad into the World, which will convince us of the Truth and raise
our Wonder at the absurdity, that Creatures of the same Make shou’d
take not only so many different, but even contrary Ways to accomplish
the same End! We all agree that its fit to be as Happy as we can, and
we need no Instructor to teach us this Knowlege, ’tis born with us, and
is inseparable from our Being, but we very much need to be Inform’d
what is the true Way to Happiness. When the Will comes to ask the
Understanding this Question, What must I do to fill up my Vacuities, to
accomplish my Nature? Our Reason is at first too weak, and afterwards
too often too much sophisticated to return a proper Answer, tho it
be the most important concern of our Lives, for according as the
Understanding replies to it so is the Moral Conduct of the Will, pure
and right if the first be well Inform’d, irregular and vitious if the
other be weak and deluded. Indeed our power of Willing exerts it self
much sooner than that Rational Faculty which is to Govern it, and
therefore ’twill either be left to its own range, or to the Reason of
another to direct it; whence it comes that we generally take that
Course in our search after Happiness, which Education, Example or
Custom puts us in, and, tho not always, yet most commonly, we tast of
our first seasoning; which shou’d teach us to take all the care we can
that it be Good, and likewise that how Good soever it appear, we be not
too much Wedded to and biass’d by it. Well then, the first light of our
Understanding must be borrow’d, we must take it on trust till we’re
furnish’d with a Stock of our own, which we cannot long be without if
we do but employ what was lent us in the purifying of our Will, for as
this grows more regular the other will enlarge, if it clear up, that
will brighten and shine forth with diffusive Rays.
Indeed if we search to the bottom I believe we shall find, that the
Corruption of the Heart contributes _more_ to the Cloudiness of the
Head, than the Clearness of our Light does to the regularity of our
Affections, and ’tis oftner seen that our vitious Inclinations keep
us Ignorant, than that our Knowlege makes us Good, For it must be
confess’d that Purity is not _always_ the product of Knowlege; tho
the Understanding be appointed by the Author of Nature to direct and
Govern the Will, yet many times its head-strong and Rebellious Subject
rushes on precipitately, without, its directions. When a Truth comes
thwart our Passions, when it dares contradict our mistaken Pleasures
and supposed Interests, let the Light shine never so clear we shut our
Eyes against it, will not be convinc’d, not because there’s any want
of Evidence, but because we’re _unwilling_ to Obey. This is the Rise
of all that Infidelity that appears in the World; it is not the Head
but the Heart that is the Seat of Atheism. No Man without a brow of
Brass, and an Impudence as strong as his Arguments are weak, cou’d
demur to the convincing Proofs of Christianity, had not he contracted
such diseases in his Passions as make him believe ’tis his Interest to
oppose _those_ that he may gratify _these_. Yet this is no Objection
against what we have been proving, it rather confirms what was said
concerning the mutual Relation between the Understanding and the Will,
and shews how necessary it is to take care of both, if we wou’d improve
and advance either.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: _Where we must begin._]
The result of all then, and what gives a satisfactory Answer to the
Question where we must begin is this; that some Clearness of Head,
some lower degrees of Knowledge, so much at least as will put us on
endeavouring after more, is necessary to th’obtaining Purity of Heart,
for tho some Persons whom we vulgarly call Ignorant may be honest
and Vertuous, yet they are not so in these particulars in which they
are Ignorant, but their Integrity in Practising what they know, tho
it be but little, causes us to overlook that wherein they Ignorantly
transgress. But then any eminent degree of Knowlege, especially of
Moral and Divine Knowlege, which is most excellent because most
necessary and useful, can never be obtain’d without considerable
degrees of Purity: And afterwards when we have procur’d a competent
measure of both, they mutually assist each other; the more Pure we are
the clearer will our Knowlege be, and the more we Know the more we
shall Purify. Accordingly therefore we shall first apply our selves
to the Understanding, endeavouring to inform and put it right, and in
the next place address to the Will, when we have touch’d upon a few
Preliminaries, and endeavour’d to remove some Obstructions that are
prejudicial to both.
CHAP. II.
_Containing some Preliminaries, As_ I. _The removing of Sloth
and stupid Indifferency_. II. _Prejudices arising._ (1.) _From
Authority, Education and Custom._ (2.) _From Irregular Self-Love,
and Pride. How to cure our Prejudices. Some Remarks upon Change
of Opinions, Novelty and the Authority of the Church._ III. _To
arm our selves with Courage and Patient Perseverance against_
(1.) _The Censures of ill People, and_ (2.) _our own Indocility_.
IV. _To propose a Right End._
[Sidenote: §. I.]
The first thing I shall advise against is Sloth, and what may be
joyn’d with it a stupid Indifference to any thing that is excellent;
shall I call it Contentedness with our Condition how low and imperfect
soever it be? I will not abuse the Word so much, ’tis rather an
ungenerous inglorious Laziness, we doze on in a Circle with our
Neighbours, and so we get but Company and Idleness enough, we consider
not for what we were made, and what the Condition of our present State
requires. And we think our selves good humble Creatures for this, who
busy not our Heads with what’s out of our Sphere and was never design’d
for us, but acquiesce honestly and contentedly in such Employments
as the generality of Women have in all Ages been engaged in; for why
shou’d we think so well of our selves as to fancy we can be wiser and
better than those who have gone before? They went to Heav’n no doubt,
and we hope that by treading in their steps we likewise in due time
may come there, And why should we give our selves any farther trouble?
The lowest degree of Bliss in that happy place is more than we deserve,
and truly we have too much Humility and Modesty to be Ambitious of a
higher.
Thus we hide our faults under the borrowed name of Vertue; an old
device taught us by the Enemy of our Souls, and by which he has often
deceiv’d us. But ’tis all mistake and nonsense to hope to get to
Heaven, if we stint our Endeavours and care for no more but just to
get there. For what’s at the bottom of this pretended humble temper?
No real Love to GOD and longing to enjoy him, no appetite for Heaven,
but since we must go thither or to Hell when we quit this dear beloved
World, a taking up with that as the more tolerable place. Had we
indeed any true Idea of the Life to come, did we but fix our Eyes
and Thoughts in the Contemplation of that unconceivable Blessedness,
’twou’d be impossible not to desire it with the warmest vigor, not
to be Ambitious of all we are able to attain. For pray wherein do
the Joys of Heaven consist, but in the Fruition of GOD the Only and
All satisfying Good? and how can we Enjoy Him but by Loving him? And
is it not the property of that Passion to think it can never Enjoy
enough but still to thirst for more? How then can we Love GOD if we
do not Long and Labour for the _fullest_ Enjoyment of him? And if we
do not Love Him how are we like to Enjoy Him in _any_ the _least_
Degree? He needs neither our Services nor our Company, He loses nothing
of His Happiness, tho we will not fit our selves to receive those
Communications of it He is desirous t’impart to us; and therefore we’ve
no reason to think He will force His Bliss upon us, render those
Faculties He has given us needless, and make us Happy how unfit soever
we are for Beatitude. What did we come into the World for? To Eat and
to Drink and to pursue the little Impertinencies of this Life? Surely
no, our Wise Creator has Nobler Ends whatever we have; He lent us
hither to pass our Probation, to Prepare our selves and be Candidates
for Eternal Happiness in a better. And how shall this be done but by
Labour and Industry? A Labour indeed, but such as carries its Reward
with it, besides what it is entituled to hereafter.
The Truth is, that the Condition of our Present State is such, that
we can’t do _any_ thing, much less what’s Great and Excellent without
some Pain and Weariness of the Flesh; even our very Pleasures are
accompanied with Pain, nor wou’d they relish without it, this is the
Sauce that recommends them. And why then shall we be averse to the
taking a little Pains in that Case only in which ’twill be worth our
while? A Title, an Estate, or Place, can neither be got nor kept
without some difficulty and trouble; an Amour, nay even a paltry Dress
can’t be manag’d without some Thought and Concern, and are our Minds
the only thing that do not need, or not deserve them? Has our Bountiful
Lord set no limits to our Happiness but the Capacity of our Nature, and
shall we set less, and not strive to extend our Capacities to their
utmost reach? Has the obliging Son of GOD thought · no difficulties too
mighty, no Pain too great to undergo for the Love of us, and shall we
be so disingenuous and ungrateful as to think a few hours Solitude, a
little Meditation and Watchfulness too much to return to his Love? No
certainly, we cannot have such narrow groveling hearts; no we are all
on Fire, and only want to know wherein to employ our Activity, and how
to manage it to the best advantage, which if we wou’d do we must in the
next place.
§. II. Disengage our selves from all our former Prejudices, from our
Opinion of Names, Authorities, Customs and the like, not give credit to
any thing any longer because we have once believ’d it, but because it
carries clear and uncontested Evidence along with it. I shou’d think
there needed no more to persuade us to this, than a consideration of
the mischiefs these Prejudices do us. These are the grand hindrance
in our search after Truth; these dispose us for the reception of
Error, and when we have imbib’d confirm us in it; Contract our Souls
and shorten our views, hinder the free range of our Thoughts and
confine them only to that particular track which these have taken;
and in a word, erect a Tyranny over our free born Souls, whilst they
suffer nothing to pass for True that has not been stampt at their own
Mint. But this is not all their mischief, they are really the root of
Scepticism; for when we have taken up an Opinion on weak Grounds and
stifly adher’d to it, coming afterwards by some chance or other to be
convinc’d of its falseness, the same disposition which induc’d us to
receive the Premises without Reason, now inclines us to draw as false a
Conclusion from them; and because we seem’d once well assur’d of what
now appears to have nothing in’t to make us so, therefore we fancy
there’s nothing certain, that all our Notions are but Probabilities,
which stand or fall according to the Ingenuity of their Managers, and
so from an unreasonable Obstinacy we pass on to as unreasonable a
Levity; so smooth is the transition from believing too easily and too
much, to the belief of just nothing at all.
But pray where’s the force of this Argument, "This is true because
such a Person or such a Number of Men have said it. Or, which commonly
weighs more, because I my self, the dear Idol of my own Heart have
sometimes embrac’d and perhaps very zealously maintain’d it?" Were we
to Poll for Truth, or were our own particular Opinions th’Infallible
Standard of it, there were reason to subscribe to the Sentiments of the
_Many_, or to be tenacious of our _Own_. But since Truth tho she is
bright and ready to reveal her self to all sincere Inquirers, is not
often found by the generality of those who pretend to seek after her,
Interest, Applause, or some other little sordid Passion, being really
the Mistress they court, whilst she (like Religion in another Case) is
made use of for a Stale to carry on the Design the better; since we’re
commonly too much under the power of Inordinate Affections to have our
Understandings always clear and our Judgments certain, are too rash,
too precipitate not to need the assistance of a calmer thought, a more
serious review; Reason wills that we shou’d think again, and not form
our Conclusions or fix our foot till we can honestly say, that we have
without Prejudice or Prepossession view’d the matter in Debate on all
sides, seen it in every light, have no bias to encline us either way,
but are only determin’d by Truth it self, shining brightly in our eyes,
and not permitting us to resist the force and Evidence it carries.
This I’me sure is what Rational Creatures ought to do, what’s then the
Reason that they do’t not?
Laziness and Idleness in the first place; Thinking is a pain to those
who have disus’d it, they will not be at the trouble of carrying on a
thought, of pursuing a Meditation till it leads them into the confines
of Truth, much less till it puts ’em in possession of her. ’Tis an
easier way to follow on in a beaten road, than to launch out into the
main Ocean, tho it be in order to the making of new Discoveries; they
therefore who would be thought knowing without taking too much pains to
be so, suppose ’tis enough to go on in their Fore-fathers steps, to say
as they say, and hope they shall get as much Reputation by it as those
who have gone before.
Again Self-love, an excellent Principle when true, but the worst and
most mischievous when mistaken, disposes us to be retentive of our
Prejudices and Errors, especially when it is joyn’d as most commonly
it is with Pride and Conceitedness. The Condition of our present State
(as was said before) in which we feel the force of our Passions e’re we
discern the strength of our Reason, necessitates us to take up with
such Principles and Reasonings to direct and determine these Passions
as we happen to meet with, tho probably they are far from being just
ones, and are such as Education or Accident not right Reason disposes
us to; and being inur’d and habituated to these, we at last take them
for our own, for parts of our dear beloved selves, and are as unwilling
to be divorced from them as we wou’d be to part with a Hand or an Eye
or any the most useful Member. Whoever talks contrary to these receiv’d
Notions seems to banter us, to persuade us out of our very Senses, and
does that which our Pride cannot bear, he supposes we’ve been all along
deceiv’d and must begin anew: We therefore instead of depositing our
old Errors, fish about for Arguments to defend ’em, and do not raise
Hypotheses on the Discoveries we have made of Truth, but search for
Probabilities to maintain our Hypotheses. And what’s the result of all
this? Having set out in a wrong way we’re resolv’d to persist in it, we
grope in the dark and quarrel with those who wou’d lead us out of it!