An essay concerning humane understanding ... / written by John Locke.

  • John Locke
Date:
1695
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An essay concerning humane understanding ... / written by John Locke. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    19/474
    This difcontinued way of writing may have occafioncd, be¬ sides others, two contrary Faults, that too little, and too much may be faid in it. If thou findeft any thing wanting, I fhall be glad, that what I have writ, gives thee any Defire, that I fliould have gone farther: If it feems too much to thee, thou mud blame the Subject ; for when I firft put Pen to Pa¬ per, I thought all I fliould have to fay on this Matter, would have been contained in one fheet of Paper ; but the farther I went, the larger Profped I had : New Difcdveries led trie ill on, and fo it grew infenfibly to the bulk it now appears in. I will not deny, but pofllbly it might be reduced to a narrower compafs than it is; and that fome Parts of it might be contra- &ed: the way it has been writ in, by catches, and many long intervals of Interruption, being apt to caufe fome Repetitions. But to confefs the Truth, I am now too lazie, or too bufie to make it fhorter. I am not ignorant how little I herein confult my own Repo*1 ration, when I knowingly let it go with a Fault, fo apt to difguft the moft judicious, who are always the niceft, Readers, But they who know Sloth is apt to content it felf with any Excufe, will pardon me, if mine has prevailed on me, where, X chink, I have a very good one. I will not therefore alledge in my Defence, that the fame Notion, having different Refp&s, may be convenient or neceffary, to prove or illuttrate leveral Parts of the fame Dilcourfe ; and that fo it has happened in many Parts of this: But waving that, I fliall frankly avow, that I have fometimes dwelt long upon the fame Argument, andexpreF fed it different ways, with a quite different Defign. X pre¬ tend not to publifli this Effay for the Information of Men of large Thoughts and quick Apprehenfions , to fuch Matters of Knowledge I profefs my fell a Scholar, and therefore warn them before-hand not to expeft any thing here, but what being fpun out of my own courfe Thoughts, is fitted to Men of my own fize, to whom, perhaps, it will not be unacceptable, that I have taken fome Pains, to make plain and familiar to their Thoughts fome Truths, which eftablifhed Prejudice, or the Abftra&nefs of the Ideas themfelves, might render difficult. Some Objefls had need be turned on every fide $ and when the Notion is new, as I confefs fome of thefe are to me $ or out of the ordinary Road, as I fufpeS: they will appear toothers, ?tis not one fimple view of if, that will gain it admittance in¬ to every Underftanding, or fix it there with a clear and Jatting Imprcffion. There are few, X believe, who have not obferved [b 3] in
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