I do therefore
assert that I am as certain as of my own being, that there are
bodies or corporeal substances (meaning the things I perceive by
my senses); and that, granting this, the bulk of mankind will
take no thought about, nor think themselves at all concerned in
the fate of those unknown natures, and philosophical quiddities,
which some men are so fond of.
. What say you to this? Since, according to you, men
judge of the reality of things by their senses, how can a man be
mistaken in thinking the moon a plain lucid surface, about a foot
in diameter; or a square tower, seen at a distance, round; or an
oar, with one end in the water, crooked?
. He is not mistaken with regard to the ideas he
actually perceives, but in the inference he makes from his
present perceptions. Thus, in the case of the oar, what he
immediately perceives by sight is certainly crooked; and so far
he is in the right. But if he thence conclude that upon taking
the oar out of the water he shall perceive the same crookedness;
or that it would affect his touch as crooked things are wont to
do: in that he is mistaken.
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