The mind is at all times so eager to draw inferences, that it will not stop to collect all the data necessary for deducing legitimate conclusions, respecting the objects on which it is employed, but is not unfrequently rash in proportion to the importance of the subject, while this very circumstance ought to preclude all precipitate decisions.

Translated by Henry de La Fite, An Elementary Treatise on Geology, Preliminary Discourse on Geology (p. 1), F.C. & J. Rivington. 1809