[ i86 ] 



namely, that they fhould refped the fame objed ; for they are too 

 often feparated to be true in this fenfe. His argument is there- 

 fore falfe in every fenfe he could afcribe to it. The true founda- 

 tion of the credibility of human teftimony, in cafes not miraculous, 

 is that laid down by all philofophers and jurifts, namely, the con- 

 fiftency of the fad attefted with the known laws of nature, and 

 fuch qualifications and circumftances of the witneffes as we know 

 both from reafon* and experience fhould entitle them to credit. 



P. 345. " Many particulars diminifh or deftroy the force of any 

 '♦ argument derived from human teftimony ; for inftance, if the 

 •" fad partakes of the extraordinary and the marvellous^ in that cafe 

 " the evidence refulting from the teftimony admits a diminution 

 " greater or lefler in proportion as the fad is more or lefs unufual. 

 ♦' For the reafon -we place any credit in witnefles or hiftorians, is 

 " not from any connexion which we perceive a priori between 

 " teftimony and reality, but becaufe we are accuftomed to find a 

 " conformity between them ; but when the fad is fuch as feldom 

 " falls under our obfervation, there is a conteft of two oppofite ex- 

 •' periences, of which the one deftroys the other as far as it goes. 

 " The fame principle of experience which gives us a certain degree 

 " of aflurance in the teftimony of witneftes, gives us alfo in this 



" cafe 



I • Note, Reafon here denotes the knowledge deriveJ partly from confcioufneft, 

 and partly from that circuitous experience well noticed and explained by our 

 author in the note p. 308. 



