Footnote 2
: This phrase,
a priori
, is, in common, most grossly misunderstood, and an absurdity burthened on it which it does not deserve. By knowledge
a priori
, we do not mean that we can know any thing previously to experience, which would be a contradiction in terms; but having once known it by occasion of experience (that is, something acting upon us from without) we then know, that it must have pre-existed, or the experience itself would have been impossible. By experience only I know, that I have eyes; but then my reason convinces me, that I must have had eyes in order to the experience.