Ch. II. No Innate Trinciple! in the Mind. 29

matters not; there is certainly a Time when Children begin to
think, and their Words and Actions do allure us that they do f0.
When, therefore, they are capable of Thought, of Knowledge,
of AlTent, can it rationally be fuppofed, they can be ignorant of

‘thofe Notions thatNature has imprintedpvere there any fuch 2 Can

it be imagined, with any Appearance ofReafon, That they per-
ceive the Imprellions, from things without, and be at the fame

time ignorant of thofe Characters, which Nature itfelf has taken
care to {lamp within? Can they receive and aflcnt to adventitious
Notions, and be ignorant of thofe, which are fuppofed woven
into the very Principles of their Being, and imprinted there in
indelible Characters, to be the Foundation and Guide of all their
acquired Knowledge, and future Reafonings? This would be,
to make Nature take pains to no purpofe; or, at leall, to write
very ill; lince its Characiters could not be read by thofe Eyes,
which law other things very well; and thofe are very ill fuppoll
ed the eleareli Parts of Truth, and the Foundations of all our
Knowledge, which are not firft known, and without which, the
undoubted Knowledge of feveral other things may be had. The
Child certainly knows, that the Nar/e that feeds it, is neither

i the Cat it plays with, nor the Blacknzoor it is afraid of; that the

Worznjeed or [Hz/lard it refufes, is not the Apple or Sugar it cries
for; this it is certainly and undoubtedly allured of: But will any
one lay, itis by virtue of this Principle, That it is impoflfble for
the fame ‘Thing to be, and not to be, that it f0 firmly alTents to
thefe, and other Parts of its Knowledge? Or that the Child has
any Notion, or Apprehenfion, of that Propolition, at an Age,
wherein yet ’tis plain, it knows a great many other Truths?
He that will fay, Children join thefe general abftraet Speculati-
ons with their Sucking-bottles and their Rattles, may, perhaps,
with Juflice, be thought to have more Pallion and Zeal for his
Opinion, but lefs Sincerity and Truth, than one of that Age.
§. 26. Th?’ therefore, therebe feveral gene- find/O not lib
ral Propofitions, that meet with conflant and ,1 a, a
ready Allient, as foon as propofed to Men grown
up ,whohave attained the Ule of more general and abftraet Ideal",
and Names lianding for them; yet they not being t0 b6 500ml l"
Vot. I. E thofe