The knowledge of the world is only to be acquired in the world, and not in a closet. - Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

It is commonly said, and more particularly by Lord Shaftesbury, that ridicule is the best test of truth.

The idle story of the Pretender's having been introduced in a warming-pan, into the Queen's bed, though as destitute of all probability as of all foundation, has been much more prejudicial to the cause of Jacobitism, than all that Mr. Locke and others have written, to show the unreasonableness and absurdity of the doctrines of indefeasible hereditary right, and unlimited passive obedience.

The chapter of knowledge is a very short, but the chapter of accidents is a very long one.