LXXVI. That we ought to prefer the Divine authority to our
perception; [Footnote: "reasonings."--FRENCH]. but that, apart from
things revealed, we ought to assent to nothing that we do not
clearly apprehend.
Above all, we must impress on our memory the infallible rule, that
what God has revealed is incomparably more certain than anything
else; and that, we ought to submit our belief to the Divine
authority rather than to our own judgment, even although perhaps the
light of reason should, with the greatest clearness and evidence,
appear to suggest to us something contrary to what is revealed. But
in things regarding which there is no revelation, it is by no means
consistent with the character of a philosopher to accept as true
what he has not ascertained to be such, and to trust more to the
senses, in other words, to the inconsiderate judgments of childhood
than to the dictates of mature reason.
PART II.
OF THE PRINCIPLES OF MATERIAL THINGS.
I. The grounds on which the existence of material things may be
known with certainty.
Although we are all sufficiently persuaded of the existence of
material things, yet, since this was before called in question by
us, and since we reckoned the persuasion of their existence as among
the prejudices of our childhood, it is now necessary for us to
investigate the grounds on which this truth may be known with
certainty.
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