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itself talk nonsense. Nothing stifles a doctrine so effectually, as wrapping up every thing in a doctor's gown: the men who would always teach, are great obstacles to learning; there is no genius which they do not contract, when they overwhelm it with a million of frivolous scruples. If you have the best intentions in the world, they will force you to suspect them; you can no longer be employed in speaking well, when you are perpetually terrified with the fear of speaking ill; and when instead of pursuing your thoughts, you are only employed in finding out such terms as may escape the subtilty of the critics. They come to put a biggin on our heads, and to repeat at every word, Take care of falling. You would speak like yourself, I will have you speak like me. Do you attempt to soar aloft, they stop you by pulling your sleeve: have you life and vigour, they scratch you cut of it: do you rise a little, there are men, who taking a foot rule, and holding up heads cry, Come down that we may measure you: do you run your race, they would have you observe all the stones which their trifling forms have placed in your