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THE SECOND BOOKE 363
Prava, cubantia, prona, supina, atgue dbsona tecta,
Jam ruere ut quceaam videantur velle, rudntqut
Prodita judiciis fallacibus omnia primis.
Hic igitur ratio tibi rerum prava necesse est,
Falsaque sit falsis qumcunque a sensibus orta est ¹
As in building if the first rale be to blame,
And the deceitful squire erre from right forme and frame,
If any instrument want any jot of weight,
All must needs f aultie be, and stooping in their height,
The building naught, absurd, upward and downeward bended,
As if they meant to fall, and fall, as they intended;
And all this as betrayde
By judgements formost laid.
Of things the reason therefore needs must faultie bee
And false, which from false senses drawes its pedigree.
As for the rest, who shall bee a competent Judge in
these differences? As wee said in controversies of
religion, that we must have a judge inclined to either
party, and free from partialitie, or affection, which is
hardly to he had among Christians; so hapneth it in
this : For if he be old he cannot judge of ages sense,
himself being a party in this controversie: and so if he
be yong, healthy, sicke, sleeping, or waking, it is all
one: We had need of some body void and exempted
from all these qualities, that without any preoccupation
of judgement might judge of these propositions
as indifferent unto him: by which accompt we should
have a judge that were no man. To judge of the
apparances that we receive of subjects, we had need
have a judicatorie instrument: to verifie this instrument
we should have demonstration; and to approve
demonstration, an instrument; thus are we ever turning
round. Since the senses cannot determine our
disputation, themselves being so full of uncertainty, it
must then be reason: and no reason can be established
without another reason : then are we ever going
backe unto infinity. Our rjhantasie doth not apply it
selfe to strange things, but is rather conceived by the
interposition of senses; and senses cannot comprehend
a strange subject; nay, not so much as their owne
1 LUCR. 1. iv. 514,