1. Our knowledge partly necessary, partly voluntary.
Our knowledge, as in other things, so in this, has so great a
conformity with our sight, that it is neither wholly necessary, nor wholly voluntary. If our knowledge were
altogether necessary, all men's knowledge would not only be alike, but every man would know all that is
knowable; and if it were wholly voluntary, some men so little regard or value it that they would have extreme
little, or none at all. Men that have senses cannot choose but receive some ideas by them; and if they have
memory, they cannot but retain some of them; and if they have memory, they cannot but retain some of them; and
if they have any distinguishing faculty, cannot but perceive the agreement or disagreement of some of them one
with another; as he that has eyes, if he will open them by day, cannot but see some objects and perceive a
difference in them. But though a man with his eyes open in the light, cannot but see, yet there be certain objects
which he may choose whether he will turn his eyes to; there may be in his reach a book containing pictures and
discourses, capable to delight or instruct him, which yet he may never have the will to open, never take the pains
to look into.
