Mr Glover 07i Forms of Induction. 123 



Our opinion, as given above, is in a great measure opposed 

 to the well known doctrine of cause and effect, promulgated 

 with so much eloquence by Dr Brown : but it is now by no 

 means an act of daring to venture the avowal of more specula- 

 tive notions, with regard to cause and effect, than those pub- 

 lished by that justly celebrated metaphysician. For at present 

 his theory is generally dissented from ; and we believe that it 

 is not in accordance with the genuine spirit of the Philosophy 

 of Bacon, nay, that brought to bear upon actual inquiry it 

 would be found to have an effect extremely prejudicial. 



According to Dr Brown, all that can be conceived, or rather 

 all that should be conceived by the mind of cause and ef- 

 fect, is the invariable antecedence of one property with the 

 consequence of another, imder certain contingent circumstances. 

 Besides this invariable relationship, no idea of power or force 

 should be conceived. And, by way of illustration, he analyzes, 

 with his wonted elaboration, the law of gravity, in which he 

 says, all that can be rationally or philosophically conceived of the 

 phenomena of gravitation is stated, viz. the simple fact. Or, 

 to the statement of the simple fact, according to his doctrine of 

 causation, a sound philosophy ought not to attach any hypo- 

 thesis of the existence of a principle connecting together the 

 properties which are the subjects of that law : the supposition 

 that the phenomena of gravitation are o^^^ng to an attractive 

 force exerted between masses of matter being unwarranted by 

 the known facts. Such must be his meaning ; and accordingly 

 he censures the query in which Newton couched his belief in the 

 existence of an ultimate principle, — the cause of gravity. 



Were one, unacquainted with the Newtonian Philosophy, and 

 likewise with any theories of causation, to behold two masses 

 of matter gravitating to one another, he would naturally ascribe 

 the fact to the existence of an attractive force, or the exercise 

 of a secret sympathy ; and, if one of the bodies wei'e drawn 

 more towards the other than this one unto it, he would suppose 

 the power residing in the one to preponderate over that power 

 residing in the other ; for the feeling in ourselves of what is re- 

 quired to produce analogous effects by muscular exertion, is 

 alone sufficient to produce both convictions. The hypothesis 

 of the existence of an attractive force is admitted by CondiUac 



