BOOK II PART II
In examining those ingredients, which are
capable of uniting with love and hatred, I be-
gin to be sensible, in some measure, of a mis-
fortune, that has attended every system of phi-
losophy, with which the world has been yet
acquainted. It is commonly found, that in ac-
counting for the operations of nature by any
particular hypothesis; among a number of ex-
periments, that quadrate exactly with the prin-
ciples we would endeavour to establish; there
is always some phaenomenon, which is more
stubborn, and will not so easily bend to our
purpose. We need not be surprized, that this
should happen in natural philosophy. The
essence and composition of external bodies are
so obscure, that we must necessarily, in our rea-
sonings, or rather conjectures concerning them,
involve ourselves in contradictions and absur-
dities. But as the perceptions of the mind are