3. Examples.
For, at this rate, any very ignorant person, who can but make a proposition, and knows what he
means when he says ay or no, may make a million of propositions of whose truth he may be infallibly certain, and
yet not know one thing in the world thereby; v.g. "what is a soul, is a soul,"; or, "a soul is a soul"; "a spirit is a
spirit"; "a fetiche is a fetiche," etc. These all being equivalent to this proposition, viz., what is, is; i.e., what hath
existence, hath existence; or, who hath a soul, hath a soul. What is this more than trifling with words? It is but like
a monkey shifting his oyster from one hand to the other: and had he but words, might no doubt have said, "Oyster
in right hand is subject, and oyster in left hand is predicate": and so might have made a self-evident proposition of
oyster, i.e., oyster is oyster; and yet, with all this, not have been one whit the wiser or more knowing: and that way
of handling the matter would much at once have satisfied the monkey's hunger, or a man's understanding, and
they would have improved in knowledge and bulk together.