Excerpt from Essays and Selections Pleased with the hope that I should be able to pass the decline of my life on a little nook sacred to literature, not in inac tivity, but in contemplation, I have been steadily occupied in the completion of a work upon the conduct of the understanding, on which I have been engaged for many years. In my times of recreation I have collected these trifies. They are published with the feeling so beautifully expressed by a cele brated divine I persuade myself that the life and faculties of man, at the best but short and limited, cannot be employed more rationally or laudably than in the search of knowledge; and especially of that sort which relates to our duty and conduces to our happiness. In these inquiries, therefore. 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.