We keep a stir about knowledge, and spend our lives in the
pursuit of it, when, alas I we know nothing all the while: nor do
I think it possible for us ever to know anything in this life.
Our faculties are too narrow and too few. Nature certainly never
intended us for speculation.
. What! Say you we can know nothing, Hylas?
. There is not that single thing in the world whereof
we can know the real nature, or what it is in itself.
. Will you tell me I do not really know what fire or
water is?
. You may indeed know that fire appears hot, and water
fluid; but this is no more than knowing what sensations are
produced in your own mind, upon the application of fire and water
to your organs of sense. Their internal constitution, their true
and real nature, you are utterly in the dark as to .
. Do I not know this to be a real stone that I stand
on, and that which I see before my eyes to be a real tree?
. ? No, it is impossible you or any man alive
should know it.
Pages:
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125