Date: 1701, 1704

"We may the conclude, that whatever we clearly and distinctly perceive is true, and that as long as we have Light before us, and assent to nothing but what we have a clear view and perception of, 'tis impossible we should err, or judge amiss"

— Norris, John (1657-1712)

Date: 1701, 1704

"And indeed after all, we have no other reason to think any Proposition true in any of the Sciences, but only because we clearly perceive that it is so, and it shines out upon our Minds with and unquestionable and irresistable Light."

— Norris, John (1657-1712)

Date: 1701, 1704

"The application of our Thoughts to other Subjects is like looking upon the Rays of the Sun as it shines to us from a Wall, or upon the Image of it as it returns from a Watry Mirrour, but this is looking up directly against the Fons veri lucidus, the bright Source of Intellectual Light a...

— Norris, John (1657-1712)

Date: 1731

"Wherefore though all Cogitations be formally in the Soul, and not in the Body, yet these sensitive Cogitations being in the Soul no otherwise than as vitally united to the Body, they are not so properly the Cogitations of the Soul, as of the mixed, or both together, as Plotinus calls it, the Com...

— Cudworth, Ralph (1617-1688)

Date: 1731

"In the day they [Phantasms] are shut out and disappear, the Senses and Understanding working, as the lesser Fire is made to disappear by the Greater; and small Griefs and Pleasures by Great ones. But when we are at rest in our Beds, the least Phantasms make Impressions upon us."

— Cudworth, Ralph (1617-1688)

Date: 1731

"Secondly, Neither doth every Involuntary Phantasm, or such as the Soul is not Conscious to it self to have purposely excited or raised up within it self, seem to be a Sensation or Perception of a thing, as existing without us; for there may be Straggling Phantasms, which come into the Mind we kn...

— Cudworth, Ralph (1617-1688)

Date: 1731

"But indeed this Opinion attributes as much Activity to the Mind, if at least the Agent Intelligence be a Part of it, as ours doth; as he would attribute as much Activity to the Sun, that should say the Sun had a Power of educing Light out of Night or the dark Air, as he that should say the Sun h...

— Cudworth, Ralph (1617-1688)

Date: 1731

"So if the Knowledge of Corporeal Things were but a Secondary and Derivative Result from Sense, (though it cannot be conceived that the Passion of Sense should ray upon the Intellect, so as to beget a Secondary Passion there, any more than one Shadow should cast another) then Knowledge would be m...

— Cudworth, Ralph (1617-1688)

Date: 1731

"Now I observe that it is so far from being true, that all our Objective Cogitations or Ideas are Corporeal Effluxes or Radiations from Corporeal Things without, or impressed upon the Soul from them in a gross Corporeal Manner, as a Signature or Stamp is imprinted by a Seal upon a piece of Wax or...

— Cudworth, Ralph (1617-1688)

Date: 1731

"But he that can believe that all human Knowledge, Wisdom, and Prudence, has no other Source and Original than the Radiations and Impresses of the dark Matter, and the fortuitous and tumultuous Jumblings thereof; it is justly to be suspected, that he is too near akin to those antient Theologues t...

— Cudworth, Ralph (1617-1688)