It may be a weed instead of a fish that, after all my labour, I at last pull up.

Your remarks upon chemical notation with the variety of systems which have arisen, &c., &c., had almost stirred me up to regret publicly that such hindrances to the progress of science should exist. I cannot help thinking it a most unfortunate thing that men who as experimentalists & philosophers are the most fitted to advance the general cause of science & knowledge should by promulgation of their own theoretical views under the form of nomenclature, notation, or scale, actually retard its progress.

... and what good is a baby?

I could trust a fact and always cross-question an assertion.

It may be a weed instead of a fish that, after all my labour, I at last pull up.

But I must confess I am jealous of the term atom; for though it is very easy to talk of atoms, it is very difficult to form a clear idea of their nature, especially when compounded bodies are under consideration.

Why will people go astray when they have this blessed Book to guide them?