viz. from the imposition of names, they infer the CHAP. XIII. truth of their first propositions; and from two of the first, a third; and from any two of the three, a fourth; and so on, according to the steps of science, mentioned chapter vi. section 4. On the other side, those men who have written concerning the faculties, passions, and manners of men, that is to say, of moral philosophy, and of policy, government, and laws, whereof there be infinite volumes, have been so far from removing doubt and controversy in the questions they have handled, that they have very much multiplied the same: nor doth any man at this day so much as pretend to know more than hath been delivered two thousand years ago by Aristotle: and yet every man thinks that in this subject he knoweth as much as any other; supposing there needeth thereunto no study but that accrueth unto them by natural wit; though they play, or employ their mind otherwise in the purchase of wealth or place. The reason whereof is no other, than that in their writings and discourses they take for principles those opinions which are already vulgarly received, whether true or false; being for the most part false. There is therefore a great deal of difference between teaching and persuading; the sign of this being controversy; the sign of the former, no controversy. 4. There be two sorts of men that commonly be called learned: one is that sort that proceedeth evidently from humble principles, as is described in the last section; and those men are called mathematici: the other are they that take up maxims from their education, and from the authority of men, or of custom, and take the habitual discourse of the tongue for ratiocination; and these are CHAP. XIII. called dogmatici. Now seeing in the last section those we call mathematici are absolved of the crime of breeding controversy, and they that pretend not to learning cannot be accused, the fault lieth altogether in the dogmatics, that is to say, those that are imperfectly learned, and with passion press to have their opinions pass everywhere for truth, without any evident demonstration either from experience, or from places of Scripture of uncontroverted interpretation. 5. The expression of those conceptions which cause in us the experience of good while we deliberate, as also of those which cause our expectation of evil, is that which we call counselling, and is the internal deliberation of the mind concerning what we ourselves are to do or not to do. The consequences of our actions are our counsellors, by alternate succession in the mind. So in the counsel which a man taketh from other men, the counsellors alternately do make appear the consequences of the action, and do not any of them deliberate, but furnish among them all, him that is counselled with arguments whereupon to deliberate with himself. 6. Another use of speech is expression of appetite, intention, and will; as the appetite of knowledge by interrogation; appetite to have a thing done by another, as request, prayer, petition: expressions of our purpose or intention, as promise, which is the affirmation or negation of some action to be done in the future: threatening, which is the promise of evil; and commanding, which is that speech by which we signify to another our appetite or desire to have any thing done, or left undone, for reasons contained in the will itself: for it is not properly said, Sic volo, sic jubeo, without that CHAP. XIII. other clause, Stet pro ratione voluntas: and when the command is a sufficient reason to move us to action, then is that command called a law. 7. Another use of speech is instigation and appeasing, by which we increase or diminish one another's passion: it is the same thing with persuasion; the difference not being real; for, the begetting of opinion and passion is the same. But whereas in persuasion we aim at getting opinion from passion; here, the end is, to raise passion from opinion. And as in raising an opinion from passion, any premises are good enough to enforce the desired conclusion; so, in raising passion from opinion, it is no matter whether the opinion be true or false, or the narration historical or fabulous; for, not the truth, but the image, maketh passion and a tragedy, well acted, affecteth no less than a murder. 8. Though words be the signs we have of one another's opinions and intentions, because the equivocation of them is so frequent according to the diversity of contexture, and of the company wherewith they go, which, the presence of him that speaketh, our sight of his actions, and conjecture of his intentions, must help to discharge us of; it must therefore be extremely hard to find the opinions and meaning of those men that are gone from us long ago, and have left us no other signification thereof than their books, which cannot possibly be understood without history, to discover those aforementioned circumstances, and also without great prudence to observe them. 9. When it happeneth that a man signifieth unto two contradictory opinions, whereof the one is CHAP. XIII, clearly and directly signified, and the other either drawn from that by consequence, or not known to be contradictory to it; then, when he is not present to explicate himself better, we are to take the former for his opinion; for that is clearly signified to be his, and directly; whereas the other might proceed from error in the deduction, or ignorance of the repugnancy. The like also is to be held in two contradictory expressions of a man's intention and will, for the same reason. 10. Forasmuch as whosoever speaketh to another, intendeth thereby to make him understand what he saith, if he speak unto him either in a language which he that heareth understandeth not, or use any word in other sense than he believeth is the sense of him that heareth, he intendeth also not to make him understand what he saith; which is a contradiction of himself. It is therefore always to be supposed, that he which intendeth not to deceive, alloweth the private interpretation of his speech to him to whom it is addressed. 11. Silence, in him that believeth that the same shall be taken for a sign of his intent, is a sign thereof indeed: for, if he did not consent, the labour of speaking so much as to declare the same, is so little, as it is to be presumed he would have done it. CONCLUSION. THUS have we considered the nature of man so far as was requisite for the finding out the first and most simple elements wherein the compositions of politic rules and laws are lastly resolved; which was my present purpose. |