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# Title: An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding (shelfmarks Leibn. Marg. 38; ZEN Leibn. Marg. 38)
# Folio 325, page id 778263916:0341
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Oa. LC. Improvement of our lnomledst
5. 5. Ttherelore those that palS For Principles, are not certain, (Whic
e musthare some vay to Hnow, that ve may be able to distinguistr
ehem trom thole that are doubrul,) but are only made (0 to us by our
blind assent rre are liable to be misted by them; and instead ot beino oui
ded into Truth, we Ball, by Principles, be only contirmed in Mistate
and FrrOUT.
5. 6. Bur since tho Knowledse oF the Cerrainty oF Principles, as vell
as oF all other Pruths, depends only upon the perception re have OF tHC
Aoreement, or Dilaoreement ol our Ideas, the vay to improve our Rnou-
ledse, i5 not, Jam Cure, blinaly, and erith an implicit Faith ro receive and
sirallor Principles; but is, Pthinl, ro get and six in our Mindsclear, di
stinct, and compleat Ideas, a5 Far as Fhey are co DC had, and annex to them
proper and constant Names. And thus, pertraps, Wichout any other Prin-
ciples, bux barely considering thole pertect Ideas, and by comparine them
one with another, findins their Agreement, and Disagreement, and eheir
several Rclations and Flabitudes; We Mall set more true and clear RnoW
ledse, by ehe conduct oFthis onc Rulo, than by takins up Principles, and
thereby purtins our Minds into the dispolal ol Others.
5.7. We must cherefore, il e illproccedas Reason adviles, adapt our men
+hods of Enquiry to the nature of the Ldeas we examine, and the Fruth we
Pearch alter. General and certain Truths, are ontr founded in the FTati-
tudes and Relarions oF abstract Ideas. A lagacious and methodical qu.
plication oE our Fhoughs, For the Andins out these Relations, is the oy-
ly may to discover all that ean be Dut, rith Truth and Certainty con-
cerrins ehem, into general Propolitions. By wrhat seps Wve are to pro.
cecd is to be learned in the Schools oF the Mathematicians, whO FrOM
verr plain and casse besinnings, by sentle degrees, and a continued Chain
ofReasonines, proceed to the discovery and demonstration oF TrutHS,
that appear at first sighe berond humane Capacitr. The Art oF Fndins
Proots, and the Ldeas that demonstratively Mer the equalier or inequa-
lier ofunapplicable Ouantiries, is, P consels, or great help to them: But
rhether Comethine litce this, in respect Of other Ldeas, as Well as thole of
magnitude, mar not in time be Found out, P ill not determine. This,
Ichinte, Imay Cay, that if other Ideas, that are the real as vell as nominal
Fsences of their Species, ere purlued in the rar tamiliar to Mathema-
ticians, cher rould caery our Thouslustarther, and mich greater cvidence
and clearness, than possibly we are ape to imagine.
9. 8. This save mme the contidence to adrance that Conjecture, Which
Tsu∞sest, Chap. 3. VIZ. That Morality is capable of Demonstration, a5 well
as Machematicks. For the Ldeas thar Fthickes are converlant about, beins
all real Fssences, and such as l imagine have a diseorerable connexion
and agroement one ith another; (0 tar as we can And their Flabitudes
and Relations, (0 far we Mall De possessed ot certain, real, and general
Truths: and Pdoube not, but if a righit method ivere taken, a great part
OFNoralier mighe De madle out with chat clearness, that could lcave, to
aconsidering Mtan, no more reason to doube, than he could have t0
doube os the Truth of Propolitions in Mathematicks which have Been
demonstrated to him.
8. 9. In our search alter the Rnomledse oF Substances, our rant of
Ideas, that are suitable to such a ay ot proccedine, obliges us to 2 quire
different method. We adrancenoc here, as in the other, rhere our abstract
Ideas axe real, a5 Wrell as nominat Plsences, by contemplatine our Ldeas,
and considerins their Relations and Correspondencies, that helps us very
licctes sorehie Realons chac in anoctier place We have aL laree Mewed. BY
irtiictr