here mean, not that which renders men ignorant of some particular things, but whatever renders them ignorant of themselves.
It is in endeavouring to instruct mankind, that we are best able to practise that general virtue, which comprehends the love of all. Man, that flexible being, conforming in society to the thoughts and impressions of others, is equally capable of knowing his own nature, whenever it is laid open to hiss view; and of losing the very sense of it, when this idea is banished from his mind.
Often have I begun, and as often have I laid aside this undertaking. I have a thousand times given the leaves I have written, to the[1] winds: I every day felt my paternal hands fall[2]. I have followed my object without any fixed plan: I have known neither rules nor exceptions; I have found the truth, only to lose it again. But when I had once discovered my first principles, every thing I sought for appeared; and in the course of twenty years, I have seen my work begun, growing up, advancing to maturity, and finished.
