Great lights they say are lately obtained in the world; and Mr. Burke,
instead of shrouding himself in exploded ignorance, ought to have taken
advantage of the blaze of illumination which has been spread about
him. It may be so. The enthusiasts of this time, it seems, like their
predecessors in another faction of fanaticism, deal in lights.--Hudibras
pleasantly says to them, they
"Have LIGHTS, where better eyes are blind,
As pigs are said to see the wind."
The author of the Reflections has HEARD a great deal concerning the
modern lights; but he has not yet had the good fortune to SEE much of
them. He has read more than he can justify to anything but the spirit
of curiosity, of the works of these illuminators of the world. He
has learned nothing from the far greater number of them, than a full
certainty of their shallowness, levity, pride, petulance, presumption,
and ignorance. Where the old authors whom he has read, and the old men
whom he has conversed with, have left him in the dark, he is in the
dark still. If others, however, have obtained any of this extraordinary
light, they will use it to guide them in their researches and their
conduct. I have only to wish, that the nation may be as happy and as
prosperous under the influence of the new light, as it has been in the
sober shade of the old obscurity.