66 HUME i 



its existence; and that is the momentary 

 consciousness we call a present thought or 

 feeling; that is safe, even if all other kinds of 

 certainty are merely more or less probable 

 inferences. Berkeley and Locke, each in his 

 way, applied philosophical criticism in other 

 directions; but they always, at any rate profess- 

 edly, followed the Cartesian maxim of admitting 

 no propositions to be true but such as are clear, 

 distinct, and evident, even while their arguments 

 stripped off many a layer of hypothetical assump- 

 tion which their great predecessor had left un- 

 touched. No one has more clearly stated the 

 aims of the critical philosopher than Locke, in a 

 passage of the famous " Essay concerning Human 

 Understanding," which, perhaps, I ought to 

 assume to be well known to all English readers, 

 but which so probably is unknown to this full- 

 crammed and much-examined generation that I 

 venture to cite it: 



" If by this inquiry into the nature of the understand- 

 ing I can discover the powers thereof, how far they reach, 

 to what things they are in any degree proportionate, and 

 where they fail us, I suppose it may be of use to prevail 

 with the busy mind of man to be more cautious in med- 

 dling with things exceeding his comprehension : to stop 

 when it is at the utmost extent of its tether: and to sit 

 down in quiet ignorance of those things which, upon ex- 

 amination, are proved to be beyond the reach of our capaci- 

 ties. We should not then, perhaps, be so forward, out of an 

 affectation of universal knowledge, to raise questions and 

 perplex ourselves and others with disputes about things to 



