And he that can doubt whether it be less, will as
certainly doubt whether it be a part. So that the maxim, the whole
is bigger than a part, can never be made use of to prove the little
finger less than the body, but when it is useless, by being brought to
convince one of a truth which he knows already. For he that does not
certainly know that any parcel of matter, with another parcel of
matter joined to it, is bigger than either of them alone, will never
be able to know it by the help of these two relative terms, whole
and part, make of them what maxim you please.
4. Dangerous to build upon precarious principles. But be it in the
mathematics as it will, whether it be clearer, that, taking an inch
from a black line of two inches, and an inch from a red line of two
inches, the remaining parts of the two lines will be equal, or that if
you take equals from equals, the remainder will be equals: which, I
say, of these two is the clearer and first known, I leave to any one
to determine, it not being material to my present occasion. That which
I have here to do, is to inquire, whether, if it be the readiest way
to knowledge to begin with general maxims, and build upon them, it
be yet a safe way to take the principles which are laid down in any
other science as unquestionable truths; and so receive them without
examination, and adhere to them, without suffering them to be
doubted of, because mathematicians have been so happy, or so fair,
to use none but self-evident and undeniable.
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