ESSAY CONCERNING Human Understanding. IN FOUR BOOK S. Written by JOHN LOCKE, Gent. The SEVENTEENTH EDITION. VOLUME I. ECCLES. xi. 5. As thou knoweft not what is the way of the Spirit, nor how the bones Quam bellum eft velle confiteri potius nefcire quod nefcias, quam LONDON: Printed for JOHN BEECROFT, N°. 23, Pater - nofter - Row ; MDCCLXXV, ක To the RIGHT HONOURABLE THOMAS Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery, Baron Herbert of Cardiff, Lord Rofs of Kendal, Par, Fitzhugh, Marmion, St. Quintin, and Shurland; Lord Prefident of his Majesty's moft Honourable Privy Council, and Lord Lieutenant of the County of Wilts, and of South-Wales. My LORD, T HIS Treatife, which is grown up under your Lordship's Eye, and has ventured into the World by your Order, does now, by a natural kind of Right, come to your Lordship for that Protection, which you feveral Years fince promised it. 'Tis not that I think any Name, how great foever, fet at the beginning of a Book, will be able to cover the Faults that are to be found in it. Things in Print must stand and fall by their own Worth, or the Reader's Fancy. But there being nothing more to be defired for Truth, than a fair unprejudiced Hearing, no-body is more likely A 2 1 likely to procure me that, than your Lordship, who are allowed to have got fo intimate an Ac-' quaintance with her, in her more retired Receffes. Your Lordship is known to have fo far advanced, your Speculations in the most abftract and general Knowledge of Things, beyond the ordinary Reach or common Methods, that your Allowance and Approbation of the Defign of this Treatife, will at least preserve it from being condemned without Reading; and will prevail to have thofe Parts a little weighed, which might otherwife, perhaps, be thought to deferve no Confideration, for being fomewhat out of the common Road. The Imputation of Novelty is a terrible Charge amongst thofe who judge of Men's Heads, as they do of their Perukes, by the Fashion; and can allow none to be right, but the received Doctrines. Truth fcarce ever yet carried it by Vote any where at its firft Appearance: New Opinions are always fufpected, and ufually opposed, without any other Reason, but because they are not already common. But Truth, like Gold, is not the lefs fo for being newly brought out of the Mine. 'Tis Trial and Examination must give it Price, and not any antique Fashion though it be not yet current by the publick Stamp; yet it may, for all that, be as old as Nature, and is certainly not the lefs genuine. Your Lordship can give great and convincing Inftances of this, whenever you please to oblige the Publick with some of those large and comprehenfive Difcoveries you have made of Truths hitherto unknown, unless to some few, from whom your Lordship has been pleased not wholly to conceal them. This alone were a fufficient Reason, were there no other, why I fhould dedicate And dedicate this Elay to your Lordship; and its having fome little Correfpondence with fome Parts of that nobler and vast System of the Sciences your Lordfhip has made fo new, exact, and inftructive a Draught of, I think it Glory enough, if your Lordship permit me to boaft, that here and there I have fallen into fome Thoughts not wholly different from yours. If your Lordship think fit, that, by your Encouragement, this fhould appear in the World, I hope it may be a Reason, fome time or other, to lead your Lordship farther; and you will allow me to say, that you here give the World an Earnest of something, that, if they can bear with this, will be truly worth their Expectation. This, my Lord, fhews what a Prefent I here make to your Lordship; juft fuch as the poor Man does to his rich and great Neighbour, by whom the Basket - of Flowers or Fruit is not ill taken, though he has more Plenty of his own Growth, and in much greater Perfection. Worthlefs. Things receive a Value, when they are made the Offerings of Refpect, Efteem, and Gratitude: These you have given me fo mighty and peculiar Reasons to have, in the highest Degree, for your Lordship, that if they can add a Price to what they go along with, proportionable to their own Greatnefs, I can with Confidence brag, I here make your Lordship the richest Present you ever received. This I am fure, I am under the greatest Obligations to feek all Occafions to acknowledge a long Train of Favours I have received from your Lordship; Favours, tho' great and important in themfelves, yet made much more fo by the Forwardnefs, Concern, and Kindness, and other obliging Circumstances, that |