ent
of universal consent, by which this opinion of innate principles is
endeavoured to be proved; unless those men will think it reasonable
that their private persuasions, or that of their party, should pass for
universal consent;--a thing not unfrequently done, when men, presuming
themselves to be the only masters of right reason, cast by the votes and
opinions of the rest of mankind as not worthy the reckoning. And then
their argument stands thus:--"The principles which all mankind allow
for true, are innate; those that men of right reason admit, are the
principles allowed by all mankind; we, and those of our mind, are men of
reason; therefore, we agreeing, our principles are innate";--which is
a very pretty way of arguing, and a short cut to infallibility.
For otherwise it will be very hard to understand how there be some
principles which all men do acknowledge and agree in; and yet there
are none of those principles which are not, by depraved custom and ill
education, blotted out of the minds of many men: which is to say, that
all men admit, but yet many men do deny and dissent from them. And
indeed the supposition of SUCH first principles will serve us to very
little purpose; and we shall be as much at a loss with as without them,
if they may, by any human power--such as the will of our teachers,
or opinions of our companions--be altered or lost in us: and
notwithstanding all this boast of first principles and innate light, we
shall be as much in the dark and uncertainty as if there were no such
thing at all: it being all one to have no rule, and one that will warp
any way; or amongst various and contrary rules, not to know which is
the right. But concerning innate principles, I desire these men to say,
whether they can or cannot, by education and custom, be blurred and
blotted out; if they cannot, we must find them in all mankind alike, and
they must be clear in everybody; and if they may suffer variation
from adventitious notions, we must then find them clearest and most
perspicuous nearest the fountain, in children and illiterate people,
who have received least impression from foreign opinions. Let them take
which side they please, they will certainly find it inconsistent with
visible matter of fact and daily observation.

21. Contrary Principles in the World.

I easily grant that there are great numbers of opinions which, by men of
different countries, educations, and tempers, are received and embraced
as f