PHILOSOPHIC SERIES-No. V. LOCKE'S THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE WITH A NOTICE OF BERKELEY BY JAMES MCCOSH, D.D., LL.D., D.L. AUTHOR OF PRESIDENT OF PRINCETON COLLEGE METHOD OF DIVINE GOVERNMENT," "INTUITIONS," 66 THE aim of this Part of the Philosophic Series is to treat historically the chief topics which have been discussed dialectically in the previous Numbers. The special doctrine to be thus illustrated is that of first principles. The discussion on this subject began with Locke's denial of Innate Ideas in the First Book of his Essay on Human Understanding, published in 1690, and has been continued ever since, particularly by such original writers as Hume, Kant, and Herbert Spencer. Our work would be incomplete without a historical and critical review of these leaders of thought. All of them have exposed prevailing errors, and all of them have caught glimpses of important truth; I have to add that all of them have promulgated serious error. Can we by any magnetic process draw out the pure metal and allow the dross to sink? Our notices will be critical as well as historical. But in criticism there are always principles involved, and these ought always to be formally stated, that all may perceive the ground proceeded on, and be able to sit in judgment on the critic. This I propose to do in this Introductory Section. Believing as I do in first truths, I am convinced that |