This cannot be denied,
that men grow first acquainted with many of these self-evident truths
upon their being proposed: but it is clear that whosoever does so, finds
in himself that he then begins to know a proposition, which he knew not
before, and which from thenceforth he never questions; not because it
was innate, but because the consideration of the nature of the things
contained in those words would not suffer him to think otherwise, how,
or whensoever he is brought to reflect on them. And if whatever is
assented to at first hearing and understanding the terms must pass
for an innate principle, every well-grounded observation, drawn from
particulars into a general rule, must be innate. When yet it is certain
that not all, but only sagacious heads, light at first on these
observations, and reduce them into general propositions: not innate but
collected from a preceding acquaintance and reflection on particular
instances. These, when observing men have made them, unobserving men,
when they are proposed to them cannot refuse their assent to.
22. Implicitly known before proposing, signifies that the Mind is
capable of understanding them, or else signifies nothing.
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