Excerpt from Letters on the Study and Use of History Compliance with: received cufioms is to be held tho both the one and the other Ihould be, what: they often are, 5 abfiit'd or ridiculdus. But this fervitude is out ward only, and abridges in no fort the liberty of private judgment. The Obliga tions of (ubmitting to it likewife, even out wardly, extend no further, than to thofe opi nions and cuftoms which cannot be Oppofed; or from which we cannot deviate without doing hurt, or giving offence, to fociety. In all thefe cafes, our fpeculations ought to be free: in all other cafes, our practice may be fo. Without any. Regard therefore to the opinion and praétice even of the learned world, I am very willing to tell you mine. But, as it is hard to recover a thread of thought long ago laid afide, and impofiible to prove fom'e' things, and explain Others, Without the alliftance of many books which I have not here, your lordlhip mufi be con tent with fuch an imperfeét Iketch, as I am able to fend you at prefent in this letter. 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.