[ ^^6 ] 



ferve to demonflrate it ; yet as the fad difcovered precedes the 

 adual experiment, this muft he caUed rea/bning a priori, and is part 

 of thatjcrutiny and examination which Hume aflerts to be employed 

 in vain. If he (hould fay, that the properties from which others 

 are inferred are themfelves known only by experience, I fhall 

 readily allow it ; for as the exiftence of bodies is not itfelf necefla- 

 Ty, but refults from the will of the Creator, fo neither are the pri- 

 mary laws by which the various fpecies of bodies and their combi- 

 nations are governed. But thefe laws being once eftablifhed, nu- 

 merous fads are their neceffary confequence, and may thus be 

 traced a priori. To exped any other connexion in a fubjed avow- 

 edly contingent were abfurd and contradidory. 



Section IIL 



Of the Grounds of Reafoning from Experience. 



Our author now proceeds to Ihew that the credit given to ex- 

 perience itfeif, though, according to him, our only guide, refts on 

 no folid foundation, but is the mere creature of the cuftom or 

 habit of feeing fome events invariably fucceeded by others. 

 " When (fays he, p. 302,) it is afked, what is the nature of all 

 " our reafonitigs concerning matters of fuEl .? tlie proper anfwer 

 " fceras to be, that they are founded on the relation of caufe 

 *' and effcd. When again it is afkcd, what is the fouvdalion 



