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Show Impruvement of our Knowledge. .' Book IV. till he has learned that Maxim ? Or cannot a Country-Wefich know, . that having received a Shilling from one that owes her three, and a Shtlhng alfo from another that owes her three, that the remammg. Debts m each of their hands are equal; .cannot fl1e klio\~ thts, I fay, Without fl1e fetch t.l1e certainty of it from thiS Mhxtm , That 1f you take Equals from Equals, the remainder will be Equals ; a MaXIm whtch poff1bly lhe never heard-or thought of? I deilre any one to confider which is known firfl: and clea~efl: by moll: People; the particular Tnfl:ancc, or the general Rule; and wluch it is that gives Life and Birth to the other. Thefe general Rules ate but the comparing our more general and ab!lratl: Ideas, wluch are the Work• manthip of the Mind, made, and Names. gtven to them for the ealier d1f· patch in its Reafonings, and draw.mg 1nto comprehenfive Terms, and lhort Rules its various and muluphed Obfervattons: But Knowledge began in the Mind, and was found;d ~n Particulars ; though afterwards, perhaps, no notice be taken thereof; 1t being natural tor \he Mmd (forward !lill to enlarge its Knowledge) moll attenuvel~ tP .lay u1>thofe gc• neral Notions and make the proper ufe of them, wh1ch IS to d!Sburthen the Memory ~f the cumberfome lo~d of Particulars. . §. 4· But be it in the Mathemattcks as 1t wtll , whether 1t be c~earer,, that taking an Inch from a black Lme of two Inches, and an Inch !rom a red Line of two lncbes,the remaining parts of ~he two Lines will be equal, or that if you t•ke equals from equals,tbe remaindtr will b. equals: Wh.ich, I fay,of thefe two is the clearet; and firll: known, I leave to any one to Jetermine, it not being material to my prefent occafion. That wh1ch I have here to do is to enquire, whether if it be the readiell: way to Rnowledge' to begin 'with.general Maxims, and build upon 'them, it be Y.<;.t ~ fafe ,J,ay to take the Principles, which a~c laid down i~ any other Science, as unquell:ionable Truths ;' and fo rece1ve them Without exarpmation, and adhere to. them, Without futfcnng them ro,be doubted olr be• · caufe Mathematicians have been fo- happy, or fo fatr, to ufe none bu~ felf.evident and undeniable. If th\s be fo, I krow not what may not palS for Truth in Morality, what may not be introduced and improved in Na• rural Philofophy. '· . Let•that Principle offome of theold Philofophers, That all is Matter, and that there is nothing clfe, be recei~ed for certain qnd indubitable, and it will be eafw to be fecn 'by the Writings of fame that have revived it again in'our days, what confequences it will lead us into. Let any one, with Palemo, take the World ; Or,, witlnhe Stoicks, the .!Ether, or the Sun; or, with Aneximener, tb_e Ait, to be God; and· what a Divinity, 'Religion, and Worlhip mull we needs havel Nothing can be (o dangerous, as Principles thus tak•n up JVithout qu•flioni•g or examination; efpcoa-fly if they be fuch as. concern Morality, which \Qfluence Men's Lives, •and give a ·bia!S to all their Atl:ions. Who might -not ju!lly expetl: an9tl;ler kind of Life in Ariftippw, who placed Happinefs in bqdily Pleafure; and in A•tif/b•nes, who made Vertue fullici>nt, to Felicity11 And he who, with Plato, /hall place Beatitude in the Knowledge of POD, will have his Thoughts raifed to othet O)ntemplations, than ti.l9(e who look not beyond this fpot of Earth, and thofe perilhlng Things are ~o be had in it. He that, with Archelaw, fl1alllay it down as a Principle; That Right and Wrong, Honell:and Difl1onej1, ared~finedonly by Law~, and not byNa· ture, will have other mea fur~ Q( moral Rctl:itude and ~ravity, than thofe who.take it for granted, that we are under Qb)igations antecedent to _all humane Con!litut)ons. t • " 1 'I' .•• J;:.) §. ~· Chap. XJI. lmpro'J)ement of our Kno"Wfedge. §. f· If therefore thofe that pafs for Pri«iples, are itot,artaiw, .(.which ,we mull: have fome way to know, that we may be able to di!linguith ,them from thofe that arc doubtful,) but are only made fo to us by our blind affent we are hable to be mifl<d by them ; and in!lead of being guit! ed into Truth, we !hall, by Pnnctpl~s, be only confirmed in Mifiakc andoErrour. §. 6. But fince the Knowledge of the Certainty of Principles, as well as of all other Truths, depends only upon the perception we have of the Agreement, or Difagrecment of our JdeaJ, t/;e way to improve Ottr Know~ lttlge, is not, I am fure, bhndly, and with an implicit Faith ro receive and fwallow Pnnc1ples; . but 1s, [dunk, to get andfx in our frlinds clear, difli• fl, and compleat Ideas, as far as they ar.e to be had, and annex to them poptr a•d conj/ant Name". And thus, perhaps, without any other Principles, but barelyconfiderm!? thofe perfctl: Jd•as, and liy comparing tbem , 11irviib.anotbtr,• findmg thetr Agreement, and D.Cagrcement, and their fuveral Relations and Habitudes; we fl1all get more true and clear Knowledge, by the condu2ofthis one Rule, than by tal<ing up Principles, and thereby putting ouc Mmds mto the d1fpofal of others. . . §.7. W< mu}/ therefore, if we will proceed as Reafon advifes,ad•J>t our m~• tb.ds of EnqMiry to tl;e natu" of tbe_Edeas we examilte, and the Truth we karcl1 after. Gen"al and certam 1 ruths, are only founded 10 the Hab1· tudes and Relations of ab!lratl: ldeaJ. A fagacious and methodiql applicuion of our 'Thoughts, for the finding out thefe Relations, is tl)e on" iy. way to difcover all that can be put, With Truth and Certamty <;ont: erning them, into general Propofitions. By what fieps we are to proceed., is to be learned i~ the Schools of the Mathematicians? whp fro~1 very plain and eafie begmmngs, by gentle degrees, and a contmued Cham of Rcafonings proceed to the difcovery and demonfiration of Truths1 that avpear a; firll: fight beyond huma~e Capacity. T he Art offinding Prbbfi!, and the Jd•as that .demonfirattvelr fl1ew the 'equahty or tnJ!<Iua~ Jity ofunapplicable Qgantltles,IS, I confels, of great help to them:, But whethet fomethiQg like this, in refpetl:·of other Ideas, as well as thofe of magnitude may not in time be found out, I will not determine. This, 1 th!nlq 1 ~ay fay, tl~t if other Ideas, that are the real as well as nominal £1fenaes of their Spcctes, wete purfued 10 the way fari\Jhar to Mothematicltgs! they would carry our Thoughts farther, and with gre-Jter evidence lndldearnefs, than pollibly, we are apt to imagine. , ·: ,. ~:13, This gave me the confidence to advance that Conjetl:ure, wlu<;h JJilggefi, Chap. r;viz. That Morality is capahle of DMJon}lration, as \Yell as Mlithemaric]>s . .. F'or the Ideas that Etlueks arc conver[ant about, :~~ng ~teal~ Effences•, , and fuch as [:imagine llave a difcoverable cqn~e~1oq aricl:aj~r.!Jemeqt one with another,; fo far as we can find their Hab1tud~ (Adtlfelmons·, , fo far .we fl1all be poffeffed ot certam,> real, and gCI)s;ra~ Truths : and I doubt not, bbt if a right method were ta~n • a great part. di'Mtlhtlity might be made ouv with that clearnefs, that could leav.e, it~ bd>11Hdering Man no more reafon to doubt, than hd,coul,d hav,<;,t~ dobl5t-of the TruJi: of Propofttions in Mathematicks \vbis:h havq pee~, d~mon!lrated to him. ' ' . < t . .;. '!>•. In our fearch after the Knowledge of Sub!lonce~ ,. our waptofl Iltall,-i:hat are fuitable to fuch a way of proceedmg, obhges us to a q)'lfC. ditli:rent.method. We advance not here, as in the other,wbere ourabfl:r~Cl:. :/Jus are real as. well as nominal Effences, by contcmplotmg o11r !l•a{; and confideri~g their Relations and Corrcfpondencies, that, helps ~s .w;ry little -for the Reafons that in anbtherplace vie have at l~q~e !hewed: '' BY.. : .,. : whtch |