The Conduct of the Understanding |
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able accustomed acquainted Ancillon appear apply arguments assent Atheism better capable carry cerned Cicero clear conduct defect determined ideas discourse distinct ideas drance embrace endeavor enlarge error evidence examined exer exercise faculties false fancy give habit hinder Hippocrates ignorance improvement indifferency inquiry journey's end judgment keep knowl knowledge labor laziness learned least light Locke Lord Bacon malè mankind mathematicians mathematics matter men's minds ment miscarriages mislead natural philosophy nature never notions object observe oil of vitriol opinions ordinary ourselves pains passion perceive perhaps philosophy Plato prejudice pretend principles proof Protagoras question readers reason received religion rest rules sciences serve settled side similes Socrates sort stand suppose taken Talleyrand tenets things thoughts Thucydides tion true truth lies uncon understanding Usury visible wherein wholly words writings
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Page 11 - O Adam, one Almighty is, from whom All things proceed, and up to him return, If not depraved from good, created all Such to perfection, one first matter all, Indued with various forms, various degrees Of substance, and, in things that live, of life...
Page 19 - Exchange, will find a different genius and turn in their ways of talking ; and yet one cannot think that all whose lot fell in the city, were born with different parts from those who were bred at the university, or inns of court. To what purpose all this...
Page 45 - This is that which I think great readers are apt to be mistaken in. Those who have read of everything are thought to understand everything too; but it is not always so. Reading furnishes the mind only with materials of knowledge; it is thinking makes what we read ours. We are of the ruminating kind, and it is not enough to cram ourselves with a great load of collections; unless we chew them over again, they will not give us strength and nourishment.
Page 11 - ... faculty of reasoning seldom or never deceives those who trust to it ; its consequences from what it builds on are evident and certain, but that which it oftenest, if not only, misleads us in, is, that the principles from which we conclude, the grounds upon which we bottom our reasoning, are but a part, something is left out which should go into the reckoning to make it just and exact.
Page 17 - The legs of a dancing-master, and the fingers of a musician, fall as it were naturally, without thought, or pains, into regular and admirable motions. Bid them change their parts, and they will in vain endeavour to produce like motions in the members not used to them, and it will require length of time and long practice to attain but some degrees of a like ability.
Page 25 - It is true that a little philosophy inclineth man's mind to atheism ; but depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds about to religion ; for while the mind of man looketh upon second causes scattered, it may sometimes rest in them, and go no further ; but when it beholdeth the chain of them, confederate and linked together, it must needs fly to Providence and Deity.
Page 26 - ... reasoning, which that study necessarily brings the mind to, they might be able to transfer it .to other parts of knowledge, as they shall have occasion. For, in all sorts of reasoning, every single argument should be managed as a mathematical demonstration : the connexion and dependence of ideas should be followed, till the mind is brought to the source on which it bottoms, and observes the coherence all along, though in proofs of probability one such train is not enough to settle the judgment,...
Page 7 - Temples have their sacred images. and we see what influence they have always had over a great part of mankind. But, in truth, the ideas and images in men's minds are the invisible powers, that constantly govern them ; and to these they all universally pay a ready submission.
Page 18 - ... that way, till at last he insensibly got a facility in it, without perceiving how; and that is attributed wholly to nature which was much more the effect of use and practice.
Page 57 - ... variety of knowledge, and therefore often stays not long enough on what is before it to look into it as it should, for haste to pursue what is yet out of sight. He that rides post through a country may be able from the transient view to tell how in general the parts lie, and may be able to give some loose description of here a mountain and there a plain, here a morass and there a river, woodland in one part and savannas in another.