I mention this, not only as matter of hypothesis or conjecture upon the progress and establishment of my father's many odd opinions, --but as a warning to the learned reader against the indiscreet reception of such guests, who, after a free and undisturbed entrance, for some years, into our brains, --at length claim a kind of settlement there, ----working sometimes like yeast; --but more generally after the manner of the gentle passion, beginning in jest, --but ending in downright earnest.

I mention this, not only as a theory of the forming of my father's many odd opinions, - but as a warning to the learned reader against the indiscreet reception of whimsical ideas, which, allowed free entrance into our brains, at length settle, - beginning in jest, but ending in earnest.
