Ignorance of the causes,and original constitution of right,equity,law,and justice,disposeth a man to make custom and example the rule of his actions;in such manner as to think that unjust which it hath been the custom to punish;and that just,of the impunity and approbation whereof they can produce an example or (as the lawyers which only use this false measure of justice barbarously call it)a precedent;like little children that have no other rule of good and evil manners but the correction they receive from their parents and masters;save that children are constant to their rule,whereas men are not so;because grown strong and stubborn,they appeal from custom to reason,and from reason to custom,as it serves their turn,receding from custom when their interest requires it,and setting themselves against reason as oft as reason is against them:which is the cause that the doctrine of right and wrong is perpetually disputed,both by the pen and the sword:whereas the doctrine of lines and figures is not so;because men care not,in that subject,what be truth,as a thing that crosses no man's ambition,profit,or lust.For I doubt not,but if it had been a thing contrary to any man's right of dominion,or to the interest of men that have dominion,that the three angles of a triangle should be equal to two angles of a square,that doctrine should have been,if not disputed,yet by the burning of all books of geometry suppressed,as far as he whom it concerned was able.
Ignorance of remote causes disposeth men to attribute all events to the causes immediate and instrumental:for these are all the causes they perceive.And hence it comes to pass that in all places men that are grieved with payments to the public discharge their anger upon the publicans,that is to say,farmers,collectors,and other officers of the public revenue,and adhere to such as find fault with the public government;and thereby,when they have engaged themselves beyond hope of justification,fall also upon the supreme authority,for fear of punishment,or shame of receiving pardon.
Ignorance of natural causes disposeth a man to credulity,so as to believe many times impassibilities:for such know nothing to the contrary,but that they may be true,being unable to detect the impossibility.And credulity,because men love to be hearkened unto in company,disposeth them to lying:so that ignorance itself,without malice,is able to make a man both to believe lies and tell them,and sometimes also to invent them.
Anxiety for the future time disposeth men to inquire into the causes of things:because the knowledge of them maketh men the better able to order the present to their best advantage.
Curiosity,or love of the knowledge of causes,draws a man from consideration of the effect to seek the cause;and again,the cause of that cause;till of necessity he must come to this thought at last,that there is some cause whereof there is no former cause,but is eternal;which is it men call God.So that it is impossible to make any profound inquiry into natural causes without being inclined thereby to believe there is one God eternal;though they cannot have any idea of Him in their mind answerable to His nature.For as a man that is born blind,hearing men talk of warming themselves by the fire,and being brought to warm himself by the same,may easily conceive,and assure himself,there is somewhat there which men call fire and is the cause of the heat he feels,but cannot imagine what it is like,nor have an idea of it in his mind such as they have that see it:so also,by the visible things of this world,and their admirable order,a man may conceive there is a cause of them,which men call God,and yet not have an idea or image of Him in his mind.
And they that make little or no inquiry into the natural causes of things,yet from the fear that proceeds from the ignorance itself of what it is that hath the power to do them much good or harm are inclined to suppose,and feign unto themselves,several kinds of powers invisible,and to stand in awe of their own imaginations,and in time of distress to invoke them;as also in the time of an expected good success,to give them thanks,making the creatures of their own fancy their gods.By which means it hath come to pass that from the innumerable variety of fancy,men have created in the world innumerable sorts of gods.And this fear of things invisible is the natural seed of that which every one in himself calleth religion;and in them that worship or fear that power otherwise than they do,superstition.
And this seed of religion,having been observed by many,some of those that have observed it have been inclined thereby to nourish,dress,and form it into laws;and to add to it,of their own invention,any opinion of the causes of future events by which they thought they should best be able to govern others and make unto themselves the greatest use of their powers.