Works of John Locke Volume 3 Author:John Locke This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1759 Excerpt: ...look any farther into the nature of things, or descend to the mechanical drudgery of experiment and enquiry. This is so ohvious a mismanag... more »ement of the understanding, and that in the professed Way to knowledge, that it could not be passed by; to which might be joined abundance of questions, and the way of handling them in the schools. What faults in particular of this kind, every man is, or may be guilty of, would be infinite to enumerate; it 'suffices to have shewn, that superficial and slight djs. coveries and observations, that contain nothing of moment in themselves, nor serve as clues to lead us into farther knowledge, should not be thought worth our searching after.. ' THERE are fundamental truths that lie at the bottom, 'the basis upon which a great many others rest, and in which they have their consistency. These are teeming truths, rich in store, with which they furnish the mind, and like the lights of heaven, are not only beautiful and entertaining in themselves, but give light and evidence to other things, that, without them, could not be seen, or known. Such is that admirable discovery of Mr. Newton, that all bodies gravitate to one another, which may be counted as the basis of natural philosophy; which, of what use it is, to the understanding of the great frame of our solar system, he has, to the astonishment of the learned world, sh-.-wn, and how much farther it would guide us, in other things, if rightly pursued,-is not ye't known. Our Saviour's great rule, that " we should love our neigh" bour as our selves," is such a fundamental truth, for the regulating human society, that, I think, by that alone, one might, without dirliculty, determine all the cases and doubts, in social morality. These, and such as these are the truths, w...« less