36 ON THE NATURE OF VALUE. 
which they only served to hide with their com- 
brous splendour. We may apply to the ri- 
gorous exaction of a uniform sense, from the 
terms employed in discussions of this nature, 
what an eloquent writer has said of the detec- 
tion of a fallacy in a fundamental maxim. 
« To discover error in axioms,” says he, “or 
in first principles grounded on facts, is like the 
breaking of a charm. The enchanted castle, the 
steep rock, the burning lake disappear: and the 
paths that lead to truth, which we imagined to 
be so long, so embarrassed, and so difficult, show 
as they are, short, open, and easy * ” 
#% Of the True Use of Retirement and Study, by Lord 
Bolingbroke.