Every Indication Of Wisdom, Taken From The

There Is No Greater Impediment To The Advancement Of Knowledge Than The Ambiguity Of Words. To This Chiefly It Is Owing That We Find Sects And Parties In Most Branches Of Science [and Politics]; And Disputes That Are Carried On From Age To Age, Without Being Brought To Issue.

A Philosopher Is, No Doubt, Entitled To Examine Even Those Distinctions That Are To Be Found In The Structure Of All Languages... In That Case, Such A Distinction May Be Imputed To A Vulgar Error, Which Ought To Be Corrected In Philosophy.

In Every Case, We Ought To Act That Part Towards Another, Which We Would Judge To Be Right In Him To Act Toward Us, If We Were In His Circumstances And He In Ours; Or More Generally - What We Approve In Others, That We Ought To Practise In Like Circumstances, What We Condemn In Others We Ought Not To Do.

Every Man Feels That Perception Gives Him An Invincible Belief Of The Existence Of That Which He Perceives; And That This Belief Is Not The Effect Of Reasoning, But The Immediate Consequence Of Perception. When Philosophers Have Wearied Themselves And Their Readers With Their Speculations Upon This Subject, They Can Neither Strengthen This Belief, Nor Weaken It; Nor Can They Shew How It Is Produced. It Puts The Philosopher And The Peasant Upon A Level; And Neither Of Them Can Give Any Other Reason For Believing His Senses, Than That He Finds It Impossible For Him To Do Otherwise.

For, Until The Wisdom Of Men Bear Some Proportion To The Wisdom Of God, Their Attempts To Find Out The Structure Of His Works, By The Force Of Their Wit And Genius, Will Be Vain.