BOOK I PART IV
the pleasures of life for the sake of reasoning
and philosophy. For those are my sentiments
in that splenetic humour, which governs me at
present. I may, nay I must yield to the cur-
rent of nature, in submitting to my senses and
understanding; and in this blind submission I
shew most perfectly my sceptical disposition
and principles. But does it follow, that I must
strive against the current of nature, which leads
me to indolence and pleasure; that I must se-
clude myself, in some measure, from the com-
merce and society of men, which is so agree-
able; and that I must torture my brains with
subtilities and sophistries, at the very time that
I cannot satisfy myself concerning the reason-
ableness of so painful an application, nor have
any tolerable prospect of arriving by its means
at truth and certainty. Under what obligation
do I lie of making such an abuse of time? And