[ ^8o ] 



B-ome, Conftantinople, or Jerufalem, any more than if he had feen 

 them ? 



P. 344. " Some events have been found in all countries, 

 " and in all ages, to have been conftantly conjoined together, 

 " others are found to have been more variable; fo that in our 

 «' reafonings concerning matters of fad, there are all imaginable 

 " degrees of aflurance, from the higheft certainty to the lovireft 

 " fpecies of moral evidence." Here Mr. Hume, in common with 

 many others, confounds certainty with evidence; yet they are 

 perceptions perfedly dil^ind. Evidence is a clear difccrnment, 

 certainty a full affurance of truth. Evidence is always accom- 

 panied with certainty, but certainty is often deftitute of evidence. 

 Thus fome Mahometans are as certain of the truth of their 

 religion as we are of ours, to fay nothing of our own various feds, 

 yet none will fay that both are founded on evidence. Evidence 

 arifes from intuitive, demonftrative, or inftindlive knowledge; 

 certainty often from early habits, a partial view of a fubjed, or 

 a paflionate regard for fome fentiment or opinion. Evidence ex- 

 cludes all pjoffible doubt, certainty only all adual doubt. 

 Evidence is contrafted with obfcurity, certainty with probability 

 or doubt. We are certain that future events of a phyfical nature 

 will correfpond with thofe that we have heretofore conftantly and 

 uniformly experienced, but we have no intrinfic evidence of fuch 

 correfpondence and conformity in all cafes; for as Hume juftly 

 obferves, the contrary involves no contradidion. 



And 



