Custom, then, is the great Guide of human Life. 'Tis that Principle alone, which renders our Expe-rience
and Corruption of human Nature, teaches, that no Man can safely be trusted with unlimited Authority; or from Experience and History, which inform us of the enormous Abuses, that Ambition, in every Age and Country, has been found to make of so imprudent a Confidence.
The same Distinction betwixt Reason and Experience is maintain'd in all our Deliberations concerning the Conduct of Life; while the experienc'd Statesman, General, Physician, or Merchant is trusted and follow'd; and the unpractic'd Novice, with whatever natural Talents endow'd, neglected and despis'd. Tho' it be allow'd, that Reason may form very plausible Conjectures with regard to the Consequences of such a particular Conduct in such particular Circumstances; 'tis still suppos'd imperfect, without the Assistance of Experience, which is alone able to give Stability and Certainty to the Maxims, deriv'd from Study and Reflection.
But notwithstanding that this Distinction be thus universally receiv'd, both in the active and speculative Scenes of Life, I shall not scruple to pronounce, that, in my Opinion, it is, at the Bottom, erroneous, or at least, superficial.
If we examine those Arguments, which, in any of the Sciences above mentioned, are suppos'd to be the mere Effects of Reasoning and Reflection, they will all be found to terminate, at last, in some general Principle or Conclusion, for which we can assign no Reason but Observation and Experience. The only Difference betwixt them and those Maxims, which are vulgarly esteem'd the Result of pure Experience, is, that the former cannot be establish'd without some Process of Thought, and some
Reflection
