Liberty Is A Blessing So Inestimable, That,

What We Call A Mind Is Nothing But A Heap Or Collection Of Different Perceptions, United Together By Certain Relations And Supposed, Though Falsely, To Be Endowed With A Perfect Simplicity And Identity.

If ... The Past May Be No Rule For The Future, All Experience Becomes Useless And Can Give Rise To No Inferences Or Conclusions.

... If You Insist That The Inference Is Made By A Chain Of Reasoning, I Desire You To Produce That Reasoning. The Connection Between The Two Is Not Intuitive. There Is Required A Medium, Which May Enable The Mind To Draw Such An Inference, If Indeed It Be Drawn By Reasoning And Argument. What That Medium Is, I Must Confess, Passes My Comprehension; And It Is Incumbent On Those To Produce It, Who Assert That It Really Exists, And Is The Origin Of All Our Conclusions Concerning Matter Of Fact.

There Is, Indeed A More Mitigated Scepticism Or Academical Philosophy, Which May Be Both Durable And Useful, And Which May, In Part, Be The Result Of This Pyrrhonism, Or Excessive Scepticism, When Its Undistinguished Doubts Are Corrected By Common Sense And Reflection.

The Best Taxes Are Such As Are Levied Upon Consumptions, Especially Those Of Luxury; Because Such Taxes Are Least Felt By The People. They Seem, In Some Measure, Voluntary; Since A Man May Choose How Far He Will Use The Commodity: They Naturally Produce Sobriety And Frugality, If Judiciously Imposed: And Being Confounded With The Natural Price Of The Commodity, They Are Scarcely Perceived By The Consumers. Their Only Disadvantage Is That They Are Expensive In The Levying.