This Language Is By No Means To Be Imputed To Any Thing Like
Disrespect Towards Captain Cook, Who Seems To
Have stood very high in
the author's estimation; it is, in fact, the natural expression of
disappointment at the unexpected
And unintended failure of a favourite
speculation, without any reference to the moral agents by whom it had
been immediately occasioned. It does, however, seem to imply censure
of those, who, in planning the expedition, were far more anxious to
make discoveries, than to extend their importance by the labours of
the naturalist. Considering then from whom it comes, a liberal
interpreter would concede a little allowance to its poignancy of
complaint. Men very naturally attach superior importance to studies
which have long and almost exclusively engrossed their own attention,
and are exceedingly apt to ascribe to ignorance, or something still
more dishonourable, that indifference to them which those who are in
power seem to manifest. Much self-denial, as well as much liberal
observation, is required, to overcome such evil surmisings, and to
induce a candid construction of the conduct that thwarts our own
sanguine prospects. These perhaps are rarely to be met with in young
men, who, in general, are intolerant in proportion to the really
honest industry they exercise in particular pursuits, and their
consciousness of the disinterestedness by which they are actuated. But
time accomplishes two great things for those who are capable of
improvement; it demonstrates the erroneousness of many of the
judgments they had formed of the human character and conduct, and it
discloses within their own breasts, several very disquieting
principles and mortifying drawbacks, which necessitate them to lower
the estimate they had made of their own excellence.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 762 of 885
Words from 205680 to 205964
of 239428
