<» 



[ ,i6 ] 



phcenonienon, from experience, and appears to arife, in the fame 

 manner, from an eftablifhed law. This veracity therefore is- 

 confirmed by the analogy of other phoenomcna, in the fame 

 manner as any given fpecies of phyfical phcenomena ; iuafmuch 

 as thefe other phosnomena contribute to eflablifli the general 

 principle, that a// things are condudled according to eftablifhed 

 laws. If now we confider the numerous experiments we make 

 every day on the veracity of human teftimony in certain circum- 

 ftances, fo that our analogy in this cafe is founded on an inde- 

 finitely greater number of inflances than in any other fpecies of 

 events in the courfe of nature, we may perceive, how die evidence 

 even of a fi»ngle witnefs may be fo circumftanced, as to eflablifh 

 an individual phyfical phoenomenon, however contradidlory it may 

 appear to our previous experience of fimilar fa(5ls. Let us 

 however fuppofe, that the evidence of the fingle witnefs is lefs 

 than the evidence of experience in any affigned proportion, 

 or that / is lefs than e in the proportion of i to ;« ; then mt = r, 



e mt 



and — TTi ~ "7 XT* Take now fuch a power/' of/, as that it 



/" . e 



fliall be greater that tnt, and -~ will be greater than — — ; that 



is, if n be the number of witnefTes, each of whofc veracity is 

 _ , , their concurrent teflimony will be fufHcient to overcome 



e 



the probability , - derived from the nature of the fadl. Hence 



therefore 



