A Wise Man Proportions His Belief To

Mankind Are So Much The Same, In All Times And Places, That History Informs Us Of Nothing New Or Strange In This Particular. Its Chief Use Is Only To Discover The Constant And Universal Principles Of Human Nature.

And Whoever Is Moved By Faith To Assent To It, Is Conscious Of A Continued Miracle In His Own Person, Which Subverts All The Principles Of His Understanding, And Gives Him A Determination To Believe What Is Most Contrary To Custom And Experience.

No Conclusions Can Be More Agreeable To Scepticism Than Such As Make Discoveries Concerning The Weakness And Narrow Limits Of Human Reason And Capacity.

The Mind Is A Kind Of Theater, Where Several Perceptions Successively Make Their Appearence; Pass, Re-pass, Glide Away, And Mingle In An Infinite Variety Of Postures And Situations.

Learning Has Been As Great A Loser By Being Shut Up In Colleges And Cells, And Secluded From The World And Good Company. By That Means, Every Thing Of What We Call Belles Lettres Became Totally Barbarous, Being Cultivated By Men Without Any Taste Of Life Or Manners, And Without That Liberty And Facility Of Thought And Expression, Which Can Only Be Acquir'd By Conversation.