For if I should profess that I, going the same road as the ancients, have something better to produce, there must needs have been some comparison or rivalry between us (not to be avoided by any art of words) in respect of excellency or ability of wit; and though in this there would be nothing unlawful or new (for if there be anything misapprehended by them, or falsely laid down, why may not I, using a liberty common to all, take exception to it ?) yet the contest, however just and allowable, would have been an unequal one perhaps, in respect of the measure of my own powers.

As it is however,--my object being to open a new way for the understanding, a way by them untried and unknown,--the case is altered; party zeal and emulation are at an end; and I appear merely as a guide to point out the road; an office of small authority, and depending more upon a kind of luck than upon any ability or excellency.

And thus much relates to the persons only.

The other point of which I would have men reminded relates to the matter itself.
Be it remembered then that I am far from wishing to interfere with the philosophy which now flourishes, or with any other philosophy more correct and complete than this which has been or may hereafter be propounded.

For I do not object to the use of this received philosophy, or others like it, for supplying matter for disputations or ornaments for discourse,--for the professor's lecture and for the business of life.