[ Sg ] 



terminate value: for there is a fum lefs than_^ioo, for whichr 

 I would fell my chance, otherwife I muft confider the report of 

 the witnefs as abfolutely certain ; alfo, that there is a fum for 

 which I would not fell my chance, is likewife evident, for if 

 not, I muft have no reliance whatfoever on the witnefs. We 

 can therefore afTign limits, within which the meafure of my 

 expedation fubfiftsj and therefore there muft be fome inter- 

 mediate, determinate fum, which is the meafure of my eipeda- 



I r /"loo _ I 



tion. Let this expedation be = -- x j^ioo ; then — x —^ ~ ^ 



ft 



expreffes the probability that the witnefs tell« truth ; or rather 

 is the meafure of my belief in his veracity. 



I 

 This expedation is to be refolved, as Hume and Waring ob- 



fcrve, into the conftitution of our nature ; the Supreme Being 



having impreffed on our minds a faculty for the fource of all our 



knowledge refpeding exiftence, namely, a neceflary or impulfivc 



belief of the future from the paft, viz. that what has, for the 



time paft of our lives, been joined together or conftantly fuc- 



ceeded each other, will for the future be joined together, or be 



found in the fame order to fucceed each other. So that having 



obferved, that in certain circumftances men tell truth, there 



arifes, by the conftitution of our nature, or as fome hold, by 



affociation, an expedation, that, in like circumftances, other men 



will likewife tell truth. 



Vol. VII. M But 



