From William Hazlitt's essay *On the Ignorance of the Learned* (1821). Select the word that fits the blank. "He turns from the bustle, the noise, and glare, and whirling motion of the world about him (which he has not an eye to follow in its fantastic changes, nor an understanding to reduce to ______ principles), to the quiet monotony of the dead languages."

Hazlitt criticises the bookworm for *lacking the understanding* to reduce the world's changes to ______ principles. The contrast is between the world's *fantastic changes* and the kind of principles that would *make sense of* those changes — i.e., **stable, governing** principles. *Fixed* (constant, unchanging, established) fits the role of *principles* that *bring order* to motion. - *Shifting* reverses the meaning (principles must be fixed to organise change). - *Learned* and *private* don't fit the *reduce-changes-to-principles* construction.