therefore warn them before-hand not to expect any thing here, but what, being fpun out of my own coarse thoughts, is fitted to men of my own fize; to whom, perhaps, it will not be unacceptable, that I have taken some pains to make plain and familiar to their thoughts fome truths which eftablished prejudice, or the abftractnefs of the ideas themfelves, 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 upon 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, those 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 should be underftood 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 neceffary to make what I have to say as easy and intelligible to all forts of readers as I can; and I had much rather the fpecula

I

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, fhould miftake, 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 Effay 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 useless, what they themselves write, methinks it favours much more of vanity or infolence to publish a book for any other end; and he fails very much of that respect he owes the public, who prints, and confequently expects men should read that, wherein he intends not they fhould meet with any thing of ufe to themselves or others: and fhould nothing elfe be found allowable in this treatife, yet my defign will not ceafe to be fo; and the goodnefs of my intention ought to be fome excufe for the worthleffnefs of my prefent. It is that chiefly which fecures me from the fear of cenfure, which I expect not to efcape more than better writers. Mens principles, notions and relifhes are fo 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 moft eafy to be fatisfied. If I have not the good luck to please, 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 spending my time, than in fuch kind of converfation. I fhall 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 mafter-builders, whofe mighty defigns, in advancing the fciences, 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 mafters, as the great-Huygenius, and the incomparable Mr. Newton, with fome other of that strain, it is ambition enough to be employed as an under-labourer in clearing ground a little, and removing some 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 industrious men had not been much cumbered with the learned, but frivolous use of uncouth, affected, or unintelligible terms, introduced into the fciences, and there made an art of, to that degree, that philosophy, which is nothing but the true knowledge of things, was thought unfit, or uncapable to be brought into well bred company, and polite conversation. Vague and infignificant forms of fpeech, and abuse of language, have fo long paffed for myfteries of science; 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 eafy to perfuade, either those who fpeak, 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 mischief, 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 suffer the fignificancy of their expreffions to be inquired into.

1 have been told, that a fhort epitome of this treatise, which was printed 1688, was by fome condemned without reading, because 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 spirits. If any one take the like offence at the entrance of this treatife, I fhall defire him to read it

thorough; and then I hope he will be convinced, that the taking away false 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 second edition, I added as followeth :

The bookfeller will not forgive me, if I fay nothing of this second edition, which he has promised, 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. These, I must 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 fenfe of what was formerly printed, and not any variation in me from it: I muft only except the alterations I have made in Book II. Chap. 21.

What I had there writ concerning liberty and the will, I thought deferved as accurate a view as I was capable of; those subjects 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 clofer 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 feemed 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 opi nion i have, or to recede from any thing I have writ, upon the first evidence of an error in it; yet this I must own, that I have not had the good luck to receive any

light from thofe 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 curfory readers, at least fuch as are prepoffeffed, are willing to allow; or whether any obfcurity in my expreffions cafts a cloud over it, and these 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 fo 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 else 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 myfelf only am affected thereby, and therefore I fhall be far from troubling my reader with what I think might be faid, in answer to those several objections I have met with, to paffages here and there of my book. Since I perfuade myself, 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 opposer come both to be well understood.

If any, careful that none of their good thoughts fhould be loft, have published their cenfures of my Essay, with this honour done to it, that they will not fuffer it to be an Essay, I leave it to the public to value the obligation they have to their critical pens, and fhall not waste my reader's time in fo idle or ill-natured an employment of mine, as to leffen the fatisfaction any one has in himself, 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 lei fure, make any additions or alterations I should think