Facile credo, plures esse Naturas invisibiles quam visibiles in rerum universitate. Sed horum omnium familiam quis nobis enarrabit ? et gradus et cognationes et discrimina et singulorum munera ? Quid agunt ? quae loca habitant ? Harum rerum notitiam semper ambivit ingenium humanum, nunquam attigit. Juvat, interea, non diffiteor, quandoque in animo, tanquam in tabulâ, majoris et melioris mundi imaginem contemplari : ne mens assuefacta hodiernae vitae minutiis se contrahat nimis, et tota subsidat in pusillas cogitationes. Sed veritati interea invigilandum est, modusque servandus, ut certa ab incertis, diem a nocte, distinguamus. - T. Burnet, Archaeol. Phil., p. 68 (slightly edited by Coleridge).
I can easily believe, that there are more invisible than visible
Beings in the universe. But who shall describe for us their
families? and their ranks and relationships and distinguishing
features and functions? What they do? where they live? The human
mind has always circled around a knowledge of these things, never
attaining it. I do not doubt, however, that it is sometimes
beneficial to contemplate, in thought, as in a Picture, the image
of a greater and better world; lest the intellect, habituated to
the trivia of daily life, may contract itself too much, and wholly
sink into trifles. But at the same time we must be vigilant for
truth, and maintain proportion, that we may distinguish certain
from uncertain, day from night.
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