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the systems of the most eminent philosophers, and seem to have drawn |
disgrace upon philosophy itself. |
Nor is there required such profound knowledge to discover the present |
imperfect condition of the sciences, but even the rabble without doors |
may, judge from the noise and clamour, which they hear, that all goes |
not well within. There is nothing which is not the subject of debate, |
and in which men of learning are not of contrary opinions. The most |
trivial question escapes not our controversy, and in the most momentous |
we are not able to give any certain decision. Disputes are multiplied, |
as if every thing was uncertain; and these disputes are managed with the |
greatest warmth, as if every thing was certain. Amidst all this bustle |
it is not reason, which carries the prize, but eloquence; and no |
man needs ever despair of gaining proselytes to the most extravagant |
hypothesis, who has art enough to represent it in any favourable |
colours. The victory is not gained by the men at arms, who manage the |
pike and the sword; but by the trumpeters, drummers, and musicians of |
the army. |
From hence in my opinion arises that common prejudice against |
metaphysical reasonings of all kinds, even amongst those, who profess |
themselves scholars, and have a just value for every other part of |
literature. By metaphysical reasonings, they do not understand those on |
any particular branch of science, but every kind of argument, which is |
any way abstruse, and requires some attention to be comprehended. We |
have so often lost our labour in such researches, that we commonly |
reject them without hesitation, and resolve, if we must for ever be a |
prey to errors and delusions, that they shall at least be natural and |
entertaining. And indeed nothing but the most determined scepticism, |
along with a great degree of indolence, can justify this aversion to |
metaphysics. For if truth be at all within the reach of human capacity, |
it is certain it must lie very deep and abstruse: and to hope we shall |
arrive at it without pains, while the greatest geniuses have failed |
with the utmost pains, must certainly be esteemed sufficiently vain |
and presumptuous. I pretend to no such advantage in the philosophy I am |
going to unfold, and would esteem it a strong presumption against it, |
were it so very easy and obvious. |
It is evident, that all the sciences have a relation, greater or less, |
to human nature: and that however wide any of them may seem to run from |
it, they still return back by one passage or another. Even. Mathematics, |
Natural Philosophy, and Natural Religion, are in some measure dependent |
on the science of MAN; since they lie under the cognizance of men, and |
are judged of by their powers and faculties. It is impossible to tell |
what changes and improvements we might make in these sciences were we |
thoroughly acquainted with the extent and force of human understanding, |
and could explain the nature of the ideas we employ, and of the |
operations we perform in our reasonings. And these improvements are |
the more to be hoped for in natural religion, as it is not content with |
instructing us in the nature of superior powers, but carries its views |
farther, to their disposition towards us, and our duties towards them; |
and consequently we ourselves are not only the beings, that reason, but |
also one of the objects, concerning which we reason. |
If therefore the sciences of Mathematics, Natural Philosophy, and |
Natural Religion, have such a dependence on the knowledge of man, what |
may be expected in the other sciences, whose connexion with human nature |
is more close and intimate? The sole end of logic is to explain the |
principles and operations of our reasoning faculty, and the nature of |
our ideas: morals and criticism regard our tastes and sentiments: and |
politics consider men as united in society, and dependent on each other. |
In these four sciences of Logic, Morals, Criticism, and Politics, is |
comprehended almost everything, which it can any way import us to be |
acquainted with, or which can tend either to the improvement or ornament |
of the human mind. |
Here then is the only expedient, from which we can hope for success in |
our philosophical researches, to leave the tedious lingering method, |
which we have hitherto followed, and instead of taking now and then a |
castle or village on the frontier, to march up directly to the capital |
or center of these sciences, to human nature itself; which being once |
masters of, we may every where else hope for an easy victory. From this |
station we may extend our conquests over all those sciences, which more |
intimately concern human life, and may afterwards proceed at leisure |
to discover more fully those, which are the objects of pore curiosity. |
There is no question of importance, whose decision is not comprised in |
the science of man; and there is none, which can be decided with any |
certainty, before we become acquainted with that science. In pretending, |
therefore, to explain the principles of human nature, we in effect |
propose a compleat system of the sciences, built on a foundation almost |
entirely new, and the only one upon which they can stand with any |
security. |
And as the science of man is the-only solid foundation for the other |
sciences, so the only solid foundation we can give to this science |
itself must be laid on experience and observation. It is no astonishing |
reflection to consider, that the application of experimental philosophy |
to moral subjects should come after that to natural at the distance of |
above a whole century; since we find in fact, that there was about the |
same interval betwixt the origins of these sciences; and that reckoning |
from THALES to SOCRATES, the space of time is nearly equal to that |
betwixt, my Lord Bacon and some late philosophers in England,[1] who |
have begun to put the science of man on a new footing, and have engaged |
the attention, and excited the curiosity of the public. So true it is, |
that however other nations may rival us in poetry, and excel us in some |
other agreeable arts, the improvements in reason and philosophy can |
only be owing to a land of toleration and of liberty. |
[1] Mr. _Locke_, my Lord _Shaftesbury_, Dr. _Mandeville_, Mr. |
_Hutchinson_, Dr. _Butler_, etc. |