truth: habitude in a particular way of thinking, as well as in most other things, obtains the force of nature; and you cannot expect to wean a man from his accustomed errors but by slow degrees, and by his own assistance; intreat him, therefore, not to judge on the sudden, nor determine against you at once; but that he would please to review your scheme, reflect upon your arguments with all the im partiality he is capable of, and take time to think these over again at large; at least, that he would be disposed to hear you speak yet further on this subject without pain or aversion.

say,

Address him therefore in an obliging manner, and I am not so fond as to think I have placed the subject in such lights as to throw you on a sudden into a new track of thinking, or to make you imme. diately lay aside your present opinions or designs; all that I hope is, that some hint or other which I have given is capable of being improved by you to your own conviction, or possibly it may lead you to such a train of reasoning, as in time to effect a change in your thoughts. Which hint leads me to add,

9. Labour as much as possible to make the person you would teach his own instructor. Human nature may be allured, by a secret pleasure and pride in its own reasoning, to seem to find out by itself the very thing that you would teach; and there are some persons that have so much of this natura! bias toward self rooted in them, that they can never be convinced of a mistake by the plainest and strongest arguments to the contrary, though the demonstration glare in their faces; but they may be tempted, by such gentle insinuations, to follow a track of thought which you propose, till they have wound themselves out of their own error, and led themselves hereby into your own opinion, if you do but let it appear that they are under their own guidance rather than yours. And perhaps there is nothing which shews more dexterity of address than this N

secret influence over the minds of others, which they do not discern even while they follow it.

10. If you can gain the main point in question, be not very solicitous about the nicety with which it shall be expressed. Mankind is so vain a thing, that it is not willing to derive from another; and though it cannot have every thing from itself, yet it would seem at least to mingle something of its own with what it derives elsewhere: therefore, when you have set your sentiment in the fullest light, and proved it in the most effectual manner, an opponent will bring in some frivolous and useless distinction, on purpose to change the form of words in the question, and acknowledge that he receives your proposition in such a sense, and in such a manner of expression, though he cannot receive it in your terms and phrases. Vanillus will confess he is now convinced that a man who behaves well in the state ought not to be punished for his religion, but yet he will not consent to allow an universal to leration of all religions which do not injure the state, which is the proposition I had been proving. Well, let Vanillus, therefore, use his own language; I am glad he is convinced of the truth; he shall have leave to dress it in his own way.

To these directions I shall add two remarks in the conclusion of this chapter, which would not so properly fall under the preceding directions.

I. Remark. When you have laboured to instruct a person in some controverted truth, and yet he retains some prejudice against it, so that he doth not yield to the convincing force of your arguments, you may sometimes have happy success in convincing him of that truth, by setting him to read a weak author who writes against it: a young reader will find such pleasure in being able to answer the arguments of the opposer, that he will drop his former prejudices against the truth, and yield to the power and evidence of your reason. I confess this looks

like setting up one prejudice to overthrow another; but where prejudices cannot be fairly removed by the dint of reason, the wisest and the best of teachers will sometimes find it necessary to make a way for reason and truth to take place, by this contrast of prejudices.

II. Remark. When our design is to convince a whole family or community of persons of any mistake, and to lead them into any truth, we may justly suppose there are various reigning prejudices among them; and therefore it is not safe to attempt, nor so easy to effect it, by addressing the whole number at Such a method has been often found to raise a sudden alarm, and has produced a violent opposi tion even to the most fair, pious, and useful proposal; so that he who made the motion could never carry his point.

once.

We must therefore first make as sure as we can of the most intelligent and learned, at least the most leading persons amongst them, by addressing them. apart prudently, and offering proper reasons, till they are convinced and engaged on the side of truth; and these may with more success apply themselves to others of the same community: yet the original proposer should not neglect to make a distinct application to all the rest, so far as circumstances admit.

Where a thing is to be determined by a number of votes, he should labour to secure a good majority; and then take care that the most proper persons should move and argue the matter in public, lest it be quashed in the very first proposal by some preju. dice against the proposer.

So unhappily are our circumstances situated in this world, that if truth, and justice, and goodness, could put on human forms, and descend from heaven to propose the most divine and useful doctrines, and bring with them the clearest evidence, and publish them at once to a multitude whose prejudices are engaged against them, the proposal would be

vain and fruitless, and would neither convince nor persuade; so necessary is it to join art and dexterity, together with the force of reason, to convince mankind of truth, unless we came furnished with miracles or omnipotence to create a conviction.*

CHAP. IV.

'Of Authority. Of the Abuse of it; and of its real and proper Use and Service.

THE influence which other persons have upon our opinions is usually called authority. The power of it is so great and widely extensive, that there is scarce any person in the world entirely free from the impressions of it, even after their utmost watchfulness and care to avoid it. Our parents and tutors, yea our very nurses, determine a multitude of our sentiments; our friends, our neighbours, the custom of the country where we dwell, and the established opinions of man. kind, form our belief: the great, the wise, the pious, the learned, and the ancieat, the king, the priest, and the philosopher, are characters of mighty efficacy to persuade us to receive what they dictate. These may be ranked under different heads of prejudice, but they are all of a kindred nature, and may be reduced to this one spring or head of authority.

The conduct of Christ and his Apostles, armed as they were with supernatural powers, in the gradual openings of truths against which the minds of their disciples were strongly prejudiced, may not only secure such an address from the imputation of disho nest craft, but may demonstrate the expediency, and in some cases the necessity, of attending to it.

I have treated of these particularly in Logic, Part II. Chapter III. Section 4; yet a few other remarks occurring among my papers, I thought it not improper to let them find a place here.

Cicero was well acquainted with the unhappy influences of authority, and complains of it in his first book De Naturâ Deorum: In disputes and controversies (says he) it is not so much the authors or patrons of any opinion, as the weight and force of argument, which would influence the mind. The authority of those who teach is a frequent hindrance to those who learn, because they utterly neglect to exercise their own judgment, taking for granted whatsoever others whom they re verence have judged for them. I can by no means. approve what we learn from the Pythagoreans, that if any thing asserted in disputation was questioned, they were wont to answer, Ipse dixit, that is, He himself said so, meaning Pythagoras. So far did prejudice prevail, that authority without reason was sufficient to determine disputes and to establish truth.'

All human authority, though it be never so ancient, though it hath had universal sovereignty, and swayed all the learned and the vulgar world for some thousands of years, yet has no certain and undoubted claim to truth: nor is it any violation of good man. ners to enter a caveat with due decency against its pretended dominion. What is there among all the science, that has been longer established, and more universally received, ever since the days of Aristotle, and perhaps for ages before he lived, than this, that all heavy bodies whatsoever tend toward the centre of the earth! But Sir Isaac Newton has found, that those bulky and weighty bodies, the earth and all the planets, tend toward the centre of the sun, whereby the authority of near three thousand years or more is not only called in question, but actually refuted and renounced.

Again: Was ever any thing more universally