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CHAP. II. Causation. 



1. THE most that can be done in order to verify the 

 several particulars of information of which the human understand- 

 ing can be possessed, is to place them upon such a footing that 

 they are entitled to belief; in doing which, those proofs must be 

 admitted which agree with the relations before spoken of, by 

 which belief is produced. This agreement constitutes the only 

 ground of the validity of arguments, and of our appeal to the 

 judgment of others; and it must be confessed that the various 

 compositions of men's minds afford considerable latitude and 

 variety to the forte of the same evidence. 



2. The effect of the operation of externals upon our senses 

 and understandings, is to produce an idea of some presence, of 

 something real, to produce the belief of an existence. 



3. By an operation of the mind, this idea might be con- 

 trasted ; and as on the one hand the belief of an existence takes 

 place, so, on the other, a conception of nihility seems to be formed. 

 Now it is granted, and it must be granted, that we have no ideas 

 but those which are originally furnished by some presence, 

 operating on the senses: and seeing that the senses are impressed 

 only by positive existences, it will be very naturally inquired how 

 we come by the idea of the absence of existence? I reply, that 

 this idea is founded upon some part of our experience. 



4. If a body of large dimensions, of a striking figure, and 

 cognizable to all the senses, but which from an inherent constitu- 

 tion, of from some concealed properties in its constitution, were 

 disposed to pass spontaneously from a solid into a gaseous form 

 (and such things do Occur); I say if such a thing were placed 

 before a man, examined by his eyes, his hands, and all of a sudden, 

 without perhaps the interference of any external cause, were to 

 begin to change its form, to expand in its dimensions, to take leave 

 of its solidity, to get thinner and thinner, until it disappeared 

 without a vestige; the witnessing of a phenomenon of this kind 

 would give rise to the idea of nihility, or the cessation of existence; 

 for something was present to the eye, and this something has dis- 

 appeared : we should say it was, and it has ceased to be. It was, 

 because we were conscious of it through the medium of the senses; 

 this is experience, it has ceased to be, because we are conscious 



