Page:The battle of the books - Guthkelch - 1908.djvu/142

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APPENDIX

which they were made: we pretend to give a clear account how thunder and lightning (that great artillery of God Almighty) is produced, and we cannot comprehend how the voice of a man is framed—that poor little noise we make every time we speak. The motion of the sun is plain and evident to some astronomers, and of the earth, to others; yet we none of us know which of them moves, and meet with many seeming impossibilities in both, and beyond the fathom of human reason or comprehension. Nay, we do not so much as know what motion is, nor how a stone moves from our hand when we throw it cross the street. Of all these, that most ancient and divine writer gives the best account, in that short satire, "Vain man would fain be wise, when he is born like a wild ass's colt."

But, God be thanked, his pride is greater than his ignorance, and what he wants in knowledge he supplies by sufficiency. When he has looked about him as far as he can, he concludes there is no more to be seen. When he is at the end of his line, he is at the bottom of the ocean. When he has shot his best, he is sure none ever did, nor ever can, shoot better or