352 DISEASES Class III. 2. 2. 4* 



compare them to, he would again and again repeat the experi- 

 ment, before he would give it his entire credence ; till by thefe 

 repetitions it would ceafe to be a fingle facl:, and would there- 

 fore gain the evidence of analogy. But the latter, as having lefs 

 knowledge of nature, and lefs facility of voluntary exertion, 

 would more readily believe the afTertions of others, or a fingle 

 facl, as prefented to his own observation. Of this kind are the 

 bulk of mankind ; they continue throughout their lives in a (late 

 of childhood, and have thus been the dupes of priefts and poli- 

 ticians in all countries and in all ages of the world. 



In regard to religious matters, there is an intellectual coward- 

 ice inftilled into the minds of the people from their infancy ; 

 which prevents their inquiry : credulity is made an indifpenfable 

 virtue ; to inquire or exert their reafon in religious matters is de- 

 nounced as finful ; and in the catholic church is puniflied with 

 more fevere penances than moral crimes. But in refpeel: to 

 our belief of the fuppofed medical fa£ts, which are publilhed by 

 variety of authors ; many of whom are ignorant, and therefore 

 credulous ; the golden rule of David Hume may be applied 

 with great advantage. " When two miraculous afTertions op- 

 pofe each other, believe the lefs miraculous. " Thus if a perfon 

 is faid to have received the fmall-pox a fecond time, and to have 

 gone through all the ftages of it, one may thus reafon : twenty 

 thoufand people have been expofed to the variolous contagion 

 a fecond time without receiving the variolous fever, to every 

 one who has been faid to have thus received it ; it appears 

 therefore lefs miraculous, that the arTertor of this fuppofed fact 

 has been deceived, or withes to deceive, than that it has fo hap- 

 pened contrary to the long experienced order of nature. 



M. M. The method of cure is to increafe our knowledge of 

 the laws of nature, and our habit of comparing whatever ideas 

 are prefented to us with thofe known laws, and thus to coun- 

 teract the fallacies of our fenfes, to emancipate ourfelves from 

 the falfe impreflions, which we have imbibed in our infancy, and 

 to fet the faculty of reafon above that of imagination. 



The 



