The Identity That We Ascribe To Things

To Consider The Matter Aright, Reason Is Nothing But A Wonderful And Unintelligible Instinct In Our Souls, Which Carries Us Along A Certain Train Of Ideas, And Endows Them With Particular Qualities, According To Their Particular Situations And Relations. This Instinct, 'tis True, Arises From Past Observation And Experience; But Can Anyone Give The Ultimate Reason, Why Past Experience And Observation Produces Such An Effect, Any More Than Why Nature Alone Should Produce It?

What Peculiar Privilege Has This Little Agitation Of The Brain Which We Call Thought, That We Must Thus Make It The Model Of The Whole Universe? Our Partiality In Our Own Favour Does Indeed Present It On All Occasions; But Sound Philosophy Ought Carefully To Guard Against So Natural An Illusion.

Riches Are Valuable At All Times, And To All Men, Because They Always Purchase Pleasures Such As Men Are Accustomed To And Desire; Nor Can Anything Restrain Or Regulate The Love Of Money But A Sense Of Honor And Virtue, Which, If It Be Not Nearly Equal At All Times, Will Naturally Abound Most In Ages Of Knowledge And Refinement.

If The Religious Spirit Be Ever Mentioned In Any Historical Narration, We Are Sure To Meet Afterwards With A Detail Of The Miseries Which Attend It. And No Period Of Time Can Be Happier Or More Prosperous, Than Those In Which It Is Never Regarded Or Heard Of.

The Corruption Of The Best Things Gives Rise To The Worst.