BOOK I PART III
supplyd by the natural principles of our un-
derstanding. Our scholastic head-pieces and
logicians shew no such superiority above the
mere vulgar in their reason and ability, as to
give us any inclination to imitate them in de-
livering a long system of rules and precepts
to direct our judgment, in philosophy. All the
rules of this nature are very easy in their in-
vention, but extremely difficult in their applica-
tion; and even experimental philosophy, which
seems the most natural and simple of any, re-
quires the utmost stretch of human judgment.
There is no phaenomenon in nature, but what
is compounded and modifyd by so many dif-
ferent circumstances, that in order to arrive
at the decisive point, we must carefully sepa-
rate whatever is superfluous, and enquire by
new experiments, if every particular circum-
stance of the first experiment was essential to it.