The eternity of the world / By G.H. Toulmin.

  • George Hoggart Toulmin
Date:
1785
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The eternity of the world / By G.H. Toulmin. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    What then can we poffibly expedl to, know, with any certainty, of hiftory or anti¬ quity, ere this epoch ! Knowledge derived from written obfervations, by the intelligent man* is received with the utmod diffidence and caution. But the accounts of things which flow from a diflant tradition are well known to be the mod glaringly abfurd, and to bring fcarce a glimmering of truth to remote defendants. Here then, evidently, is feen the impoffibi- lity of coming at any effential knowledge of the antiquity, much lei's the eternal exidence of the human fpecies, from the fource of hu- % man tradition. But independent of that ab- folute neceffity of an extended civilization to give even the minuted origin to the art of writing or regidering of ideas, a little know¬ ledge of the world is fufficient to convince us, that human fociety has been and isftill in a continued and rapid revolution. Even our own limited experience, our hidories and tra¬ ditions, fuperficial and imperfedt as they mod certainly are, are yet abundantly fufficient to convince us of the rife and fall of empires. And > 4 ♦ %
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