"
Hume warms into eloquence as he sets forth the labours meet for the
strength and the courage of the Hercules of "mitigated scepticism."
"Here, indeed, lies the justest and most plausible objection
against a considerable part of metaphysics, that they are not
properly a science, but arise either from the fruitless efforts of
human vanity, which would penetrate into subjects utterly
inaccessible to the understanding, or from the craft of popular
superstitions, which, being unable to defend themselves on fair
ground, raise these entangling brambles to cover and protect their
weakness. Chased from the open country, these robbers fly into the
forest, and lie in wait to break in upon every unguarded avenue of
the mind and overwhelm it with religious fears and prejudices. The
stoutest antagonist, if he remits his watch a moment, is oppressed;
and many, through cowardice and folly, open the gates to the
enemies, and willingly receive them with reverence and submission
as their legal sovereigns.
"But is this a sufficient reason why philosophers should desist
from such researches and leave superstition still in possession of
her retreat? Is it not proper to draw an opposite conclusion, and
perceive the necessity of carrying the war into the most secret
recesses of the enemy?... The only method of freeing learning at
once from these abstruse questions, is to inquire seriously into
the nature of human understanding, and show, from an exact analysis
of its powers and capacity, that it is by no means fitted for such
remote and abstruse subjects.
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