Chap. III. ANT IE NT METAPHYSICS. 389 



bit, without heing" able to give any account hotv they do it ; the rea- 

 fon of which is, that they cannot analyfe ia^^gnage into its eieaieits, 

 nor account how thefe elements are compofed into Ipeech ; for analy- 

 fis is the work of art or fcience. In the fame manner, the philoto- 

 phers before Ariilode could reafon very well ; but, as they could not 

 analyfe realbn, fo they could not give any rational account wby one 

 argument was conciufive, and another jnconclufive ; but they knew 

 them to be fo only by common fenje^ thai is, natural fenfe, not inftruct- 

 ed by fcience.- — But to return to our fubjedb. 



In all the propofitions I now fpeak of, the mind perceives the con- 

 nedion betwixt the praedicate and the fubje6t, either directly and im- 

 mediately, or by a procefs of reafoning, that is, by the exercife of the 

 Ittcsem, as it is called in Greek, the difcurfus mentis^ as it is called in 

 Latin, or difcourfe of reafon^ as it may be tranflated into Engliin. (;f 

 the firft kind are Axioms, or propofitions of intuiiive evidence. Thefe, 

 though they cannot, by their nature, be demonftrated, yet fome ac- 

 count, 1 think, may be given of the nature of the evidence upon 

 ■which we believe them to be true ; for it will not fati&ty a philoio- 

 pher to fay, that, by inftincl^ we believe them to be true ; becaufe ?«- 

 Ji'tnft has nothing to do v/ith intelled, or fpeculative truth of any 

 kind, it ferving only to dired pradical life, as it does entirely among 

 the brutes, and, in fome inftances, among us. It, therefore, relates 

 only to appetites and inclinations prompting us to ad, but has no 

 concern with opinions or belief of any kind, and, conf.^quentlv, not 

 with common fcnfe^ which is nothing but opinion in the ordniary af- 

 fairs of life, not formed by art or fcience, but arifing from experience 

 and common obfervation. 



I will begin with the axioms of geometry, which, I am perfuadcd, 

 was the firft fcience, properly fo called, among men. This 1 believe tor 

 two reafons j the firft is, that the ideas of geometry are the fimpleft-, 



the 



