Excerpt from An Address Delivered Before the Washington and Franklin Literary Societies of Lafayette College, Easton, Pennsylvania, at the Eighth Annual Commencement, September 20, 1843 Ainversely as the squares of their distances? How, but by collecting numerous facts, and drawing from them all, a general conclusion. Upon this same rock, both the practical man and the philosopher, base all their con elusions in respect tothe truths of life. These are the results of that great system of inductive philosophy, which boasts its origin from Lord Bacon, - a system as sirnple and as sublime in itself, as its influence has been extensive, on the best interests of society. Indeed, considering its Simplicity, and its importance in every department of knowledge, as well as the effect it had in subverting old systems of philosophy, and imparting a new impulse to the spirit of inquiry, we are amazed that the Greek philosophy, that mixture of fraud and superstition, Should for so many centuries have swayed its sceptre over learning, and crippled, if it did not prostrate, the energies of the human mind. That men Should expect to arrive at the knowledge of truth, by forming a theory of their own, and then insti tuting through creation, a search for facts to sustain it, is wholly unintelligible to modern minds. Happy day for the cause of truth, when these bonds were rent asunder! About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.