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CAP. 16.
That the mind of a man, as it is not a vessel of that
content or receipt to comprehend knowledge without helps and supplies, so
again it is not sincere, but of an ill and corrupt tincture. Of the
inherent and profound errors and superstitions in the nature of the mind,
and of the four sorts of Idols or false appearances that offer themselves
to the understanding in the inquisition of knowledge; that is to say, the
Idols of the Tribe, the Idols of the Palace, the Idols of the Cave, and the
Idols of the Theatre. That these four, added to the incapacity of the mind
and the vanity and malignity of the affections, leave nothing but impotency
and confusion. A recital of the particular kinds of these four Idols, with
some chosen examples of the opinions they have begot, such of them as have
supplanted the state of knowledge most.
[@ Works III, 245]
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