A Man Who Is Certain He Is

I Will Simply Express My Strong Belief, That That Point Of Self-education Which Consists In Teaching The Mind To Resist Its Desires And Inclinations, Until They Are Proved To Be Right, Is The Most Important Of All, Not Only In Things Of Natural Philosophy, But In Every Department Of Dally Life.

Now I Must Take You To A Very Interesting Part Of Our Subject-to The Relation Between The Combustion Of A Candle And That Living Kind Of Combustion Which Goes On Within Us. In Every One Of Us There Is A Living Process Of Combustion Going On Very Similar To That Of A Candle, And I Must Try To Make That Plain To You. For It Is Not Merely True In A Poetical Sense-the Relation Of The Life Of Man To A Taper; And If You Will Follow, I Think I Can Make This Clear.

But Still Try, For Who Knows What Is Possible?

When A Mathematician Engaged In Investigating Physical Actions And Results Has Arrived At His Own Conclusions, May They Not Be Expressed In Common Language As Fully, Clearly, And Definitely As In Mathematical Formulae? If So, Would It Not Be A Great Boon To Such As Well To Express Them So -- Translating Them Out Of Their Hieroglyphics That We Might Also Work Upon Them By Experiment?

But I Must Confess I Am Jealous Of The Term Atom; For Though It Is Very Easy To Talk Of Atoms, It Is Very Difficult To Form A Clear Idea Of Their Nature, Especially When Compounded Bodies Are Under Consideration.