Excerpt from Dissertation First, Vol. 2: Exhibiting a General View of the Progress of Metaphysical, Ethical, and Political Philosophy, Since the Revival of the Letters in Europe The foregoing considerations, combined with the narrow limits assigned to the sequel of my work, will sufficiently ac count for the contracted scale of some of the following sketches, when compared with the magnitude of the ques tions to which they relate, and the peculiar interest which they derive from their immediate influence on the opinions of our own times. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.