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# Title: An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding (shelfmarks Leibn. Marg. 38; ZEN Leibn. Marg. 38)
# Folio 324, page id 778263916:0340
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Improvement of our lnomledse.
Boda1V.
Fi)Ihe has lcarned that Naxim : Or CanHOFa Connery - W enCh KnOW, Fhat
having receired a Shillins trom one thar omes her threc, and a Shilline
also from anottier chat omes her three, that the remainins Debrs in cach
OE their hands are equal; cannot e lno this, P Pay, Without Me Petci
ehe certaints ofit trom this Maxim, That it zou take rquals trom Pquals,
ehie remainder ill BC EqualS; 2 Maxim Which postibly e never heard or
chousht oF: Pdetire any one io consider trhich is linown tirlt and clearest
By most People; the particular Instance, or the general Rule; and whien
it isthat gires Lise and Birthto the other. Thele general Rulesare but tho
comparino our more general and abstract Ideas, Wrhich are che WOrK-
manship ofthe Mlinc, made; and Names siven to them For the casier dis-
Patch in its Reasonines, and dramins into comprehensive Perms, and
Thort Rules, ies various and multiplied Observations: But Knomledoe Be-
san in theMtind, and Was founded on Parriculars; thouch attermaras,
perhaps, no norice be taken thereot; it beins natural Por themind (For-
Ward sill eo enlarge its Rnow ledec) most accentively eo lay ux thole se-
neral Notions, and matis the prover use ot them, whieh is to disburthen
the Memory of the cumbersome load oF Particulars.
9. 4. But be it inthe Machematicks as it will, Whether it be clearer,
that taktins an Inch trom a black Linc of trro Tuches, and an Inch From a
red Linc ottro Inches, the remainins parts ol thetro Lines will be equal,
Ox that if vou take equals from equals, the remainder will be equals: Wtictu,
Plar, ot these erro is the clearer and tirst Hnown, I lcave tO any OnC EO
determine, it not beins material to my present occasion. That Whick L
have here to do, is to enquire, hrether il it Be the readicst var EORNO-
ledse, tobegin ith general Maxims, and build uxon them, it be yet a
sate ay eo tatie the Principles, wrhich are laid dorn in any otter sci-
enco, as unquectionable Truths; and (0 receire them without examina-
tion, and adhere to them, withour suftering them to be doubted ot, be-
cause Mathematicians have been (0 hapor, or l0 tair, to ule norie buF
selFevident and undeniable. IFthis De (0, P Hno not what may noc pals
For Truth in Noralier, What may nor be introduced andimproved in Na-
tural Philosophi.
Let that Principle oF lome of the ola Philosophers, That all is Matter,
and that there is nothins else, be receired for certain and indubitable,
and it will be casie to be seen by the Writinos of some that have rerivedie
again in our days, wrhat consequences it Will lead us into. Let any onc,
ith Polemo, take the NVorid; Or, With the Stoicts, the Ather, OF thC
Sun; Or, with sneximenes, the Air, to De C0d; and whrat a Divinitr,
Relision, and Worthip must re necds have. Norhine ean De so dangerous,
a5 Principles thus taken up without questionine or examination; espccialsy
il ther be luch as concern Moralier, wrhrich influence Mens Lires, and
sire a bials to all their actions. Who misht not justls expect another
Kind oF Lite in Aristippus, Wrtro placed FTappinels in bodily Pleature; and
in Antisthenes, who inade Vertue sufficient to Felicity: And he Who,
rith Plato, Mail place Beatitude in the Rnomledge ot CrOD, will have
his Thouohts raised to other Contemplarions, than those who look nOE
berond this spot of Farch, and thole perithing Thinss are to be had in it.
Fre that, vith Archelaus, Mall lar it dorrn es a Principle, That Rioht and
Wrong. TIonest and Distronest, are detined only by LaWs, and not by Na-
turo, ill have other measures of moral Rectitude and Pravier, than chole
Wtiotatse it for granted, that wre are uncer Obligations antecedent to aIl
humane Consticutions.