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therefore warn them before-hand not to expect any thing here, but what, being fpun out of my own coarfe thoughts, is fitted to men of my own fize; to whom, perhaps, it will not be unacceptable, that I have taken fome pains to make plain and familiar to their thoughts fome truths which established prejudice, or the abftractness of the ideas themselves, might render difficult. Some objects had need be turned on every fide; and when the notion is new, as I confess some of those are to me, or out of the ordinary road, as I fufpect they will appear to others, it is not one fimple view of it that will gain it admittance into every understanding, or fix it there with a clear and lafting impreffion. There are few, I believe, who have not obferved, in themselves or others, that what in one way of propofing was very obfcure, another way of expreffing it has made very clear and intelligible, though afterward the mind found little difference in the phrafes, and wondered why one failed to be undertood more than the other. But every thing does not hit alike apon every man's imagination: We have our understandings no lefs different than our palates; and he that thinks the fame truth fhall be equally relished by every one in the fame drefs, may as well hope to feaft every one with the fame fort of cookery: The meat may be the fame, and the nourishment good, yet every one not be able to receive it with that feasoning; and it must be dreffed another way, if you will have it go down with fome, even of ftrong conftitutions. The truth is, thofe who advised me to publish it, advised me, for this reafon, to publish it as it is; and fince I have been brought to let it go abroad, I defire it fhould be understood by whoever gives himself the pains to read it. I have fo little affection to be in print, that if I were not flattered this Effay might be of fome ufe to others, as I think it has been to me, I fhould have confined it to the view of fome friends, who gave the firft occafion to it. My appearing therefore in print being on purpose to be as ufeful as I may, I think it neceflary to make what I have to fay as cafy and intelligible to all forts of readers as I can; and I had much rather the fpecula

tive and quick-fighted fhould complain of my being in fome parts tedious, than that any one, not accustomed to abstract fpeculations, or prepoffeffed with different notions, should mistake, or not comprehend my meaning.

It will poffibly be cenfured as a great piece of vanity or infolence in me, to pretend to inftruct this our knowing age; it amounting to little lefs, when I own, that I publish this Efay with hopes it may be useful to others. But if it may be permitted to speak freely of thofe, who, with a feigned modefty, condemn as ufelefs, what they themselves write, methinks it favours much more of vanity or infolence to publifh a book for any other end; and he fails very much of that refpect he owes the public, who prints, and confequently expects men fhould read that, wherein he intends not they thould meet with any thing of use to themselves or others: and fhould nothing else be found allowable in this treatife, yet my defign will not cease to be fo; and the goodnefs of my intention ought to be fome excufe for the worthleffness of my prefent. It is that chiefly which fecures me from the fear of cenfure, which I expect not to escape more than better writers. Mens principles, notions and relishes are so different, that it is hard to find a book which pleases or displeases all men. I acknowledge the age we live in is not the leaft knowing, and therefore not the most easy to be fatisfied. If I have not the good luck to pleafe, yet nobody ought to be offended with me. I plainly tell all my readers, except half a dozen, this treatife was not at first intended for them; and therefore they need not be at the trouble to be of that number. But yet if any one thinks fit to be angry, and rail at it, he may do it fecurely; for I fhall find fome better way of fpending my time, than in fuch kind of conversation. I shall always have the fatisfaction to have aimed fincerely at truth and usefulness, though in one of the meanest ways. The commonwealth of learning is not at this time without master-builders, whose mighty designs, in advancing the sciences, will leave lafting monuments to the admiration of pofterity; but every one must not hope to be a Boyle or a Sydenham; and in an age that produces

fuch masters, as the great-Huygenius, and the incomparable Mr. Newton, with fome other of that ftrain, it is ambition enough to be employed as an under-labourer in clearing ground a little, and removing fome of the rubbish that lies in the way to knowledge; which certainly had been very much more advanced in the world, if the endeavours of ingenious and induftrious men had not been much cumbered with the learned, but frivolous ufe of uncouth, affected, or unintelligible terms, introduced into the sciences, and there made an art of, to that degree, that philofophy, which is nothing but the true knowledge of things, was thought unfit, or uncapable to be brought into well bred company, and polite converfation. Vague and infignificant forms of fpeech, and abuse of language, have fo long paffed for myfteries of fcience; and hard or mifapplied words, with little or no meaning, have by prescription, fuch a right to be mistaken for deep learning, and height of fpeculation, that it will not be easy to perfuade, either those who speak, or those who hear them, that they are but the covers of ignorance, and hinderance of true knowledge. To break in upon the fanctuary of vanity and ignorance, will be, I fuppofe, fome fervice to human understanding though fo few are apt to think, they deceive or are deceived in the ufe of words; or that the language of the fect they are of, has any faults in it, which ought to be examined or corrected; that I hope I fhall be pardoned, if I have in the third book dwelt long on this fubject; and endeavoured to make it fo plain, that neither the inveterateness of the mifchief, nor the prevalency of the fashion, fhall be any excufe for those who will not take care about the meaning of their own words, and will not fuffer the fignificancy of their expreffions to be inquired into.

I have been told, that a fhort epitome of this treatise, which was printed 1688, was by fome condemned with-" out reading, becaufe innate ideas were denied in it; they too hastily concluding, that if innate ideas were not fuppofed, there would be little left, either of the notion or proof of fpirits. If any one take the like offence at the entrance of this treatife, I fhall defire him to read it t

thorough; and then I hope he will be convinced, that the taking away falfe foundations, is not to the prejudice, but advantage of truth; which is never injured or endangered fo much, as when mixed with, or built on falfehood. In the fecond edition, added as followeth :

The bookfeller will not forgive me, if I fay nothing of this fecond edition, which he has promifed, by the correctnefs of it, fhall make amends for the many faults committed in the former. He defires too, that it should be known, that it has one whole new chapter concerning identity, and many additions and amendments in other places. Thefe, I muft inform my reader, are not all new matter, but most of them either farther confirmation of what I had faid, or explications, to prevent others being mistaken in the fense of what was formerly printed, and not any variation in me from it: I must only except the alterations I have made in Book II. Chap. 21.

What I had there writ concerning liberty and the quill, I thought deferved as accurate a view as I was capable of; thofe fubjects having, in all ages, exercised the learned part of the world with questions and difficulties, that have not a little perplexed morality and divinity; those parts of knowledge that men are most concerned to be clear in. Upon a closer inspection into the working of mens minds, and a stricter examination of those motives and views they are turned by, I have found reason fomewhat to alter the thoughts I formerly had concerning that, which gives the last determination to the will in all voluntary actions. 'This I cannot forbear to acknowledge to the world, with as much freedom and readiness, as I at first published what then seemed to me to be right, thinking myself more concerned to quit and renounce any opinion, than oppose that of another, when truth appears against it: For it is truth alone I feek, and that will always be welcome to me, when, or from whencefoever it comes.

But what forwardness foever I have to refign any opinion i have, or to recede from any thing i have writ, upon the first evidence of an error in it; yet this 1 muft own, that I have not had the good luck to receive any

light from those exceptions I have met with in print against any part of my book; nor have, from any thing has been urged against it, found reafon to alter my fenfe, in any of the points have been questioned. Whether the fubject I have in hand requires often more thought and attention, than cursory readers, at least fuch as are prepoffeffed, are willing to allow; or whether any obfcurity in my expreffions cafts a cloud over it, and thefe notions are made difficult to others apprehenfion in my way of treating them; fo it is, that my meaning, I find, is often mistaken, and I have not the good luck to be every where rightly understood. There are so many inftances of this, that I think it justice to my reader and myself, to conclude, that either my book is plainly enough written to be rightly understood by thofe, who peruse it with that attention and indifferency, which every one, who will give himself the pains to read, ought to employ in reading; or elfe that I have writ mine fo obfcurely, that it is in vain to go about to mend it. Which ever of these be that truth, it is myself only am affected thereby, and therefore I fhall be far from troubling my reader with what I think might be faid, in answer to thofe feveral objections I have met with, to paffages here and there of my book. Since I perfuade myfelf, that he who thinks them of moment enough to be concerned, whether they are true or false, will be able to fee, that what is faid, is either not well founded, or else not contrary to my doctrine, when I and my oppofer come both to be well understood.

If any, careful that none of their good thoughts should be loft, have published their cenfures of my Essay, with this honour done to it, that they will not fuffer it to be an Effay, I leave it to the public to value the obligation they have to their critical pens, and thall not wafte my reader's time in fo idle or ill-natured an employment of mine, as to leffen the fatisfaction any one has in himfelf, or gives to others in fo hafty a confutation of what I have written...

The bookfeller's preparing for the fourth edition of my Effay, gave me notice of it, that I might, if I had leifure, make any additions or alterations I fhould think

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