7. Occasion of this essay.
This was that which gave the first rise to this Essay concerning the understanding. For I
thought that the first step towards satisfying several inquiries the mind of man was very apt to run into, was, to
take a survey of our own understandings, examine our own powers, and see to what things they were adapted. Till
that was done I suspected we began at the wrong end, and in vain sought for satisfaction in a quiet and sure
possession of truths that most concerned us, whilst we let loose our thoughts into the vast ocean of Being; as if all
that boundless extent were the natural and undoubted possession of our understandings, wherein there was
nothing exempt from its decisions, or that escaped its comprehension. Thus men, extending their inquiries beyond
their capacities, and letting their thoughts wander into those depths where they can find no sure footing, it is no
wonder that they raise questions and multiply disputes, which, never coming to any clear resolution, are proper
only to continue and increase their doubts, and to confirm them at last in perfect scepticism. Whereas, were the
capacities of our understandings well considered, the extent of our knowledge once discovered, and the horizon
found which sets the bounds between the enlightened and dark parts of things; between what is and what is not
comprehensible by us, men would perhaps with less scruple acquiesce in the avowed ignorance of the one, and
employ their thoughts and discourse with more advantage and satisfaction in the other.
