35 



plained, it is sometimes respected, as it were, intuitively, and it is at 

 others set aside without ceremony. 



77. The cause always exists in the effect. Here we are liable 

 to be misled by successive acts of causation. Thus, to extend in 

 this place a former illustration, a man made a watch : the man is 

 the cause, as may be said, the watch the effect. But surely the man 

 is not included in the watch? Why, no; truly the man has an habi- 

 tation in England, and the watch may be lying upon the dressing- 

 table of a gentleman at Calcutta. Here we must trace a process of 

 causation ; and though an example more palpably opposed to our 

 doctrine will not readily be devised, we shall still find that our 

 principle is untouched by it. 



78. The vital organs of the man, his animal powers, his 

 mechanic knowledge, his facility in the art, all concur to produce 

 one effect, which is the exertion of that ability which is produced 

 by this complicated causation; this effect, in its turn, becomes a 

 cause, by which the parts of the watch are adapted to each other; 

 the intelligence of the artificer is related with volition, or produces 

 and modifies volition ; volition is related with the muscles of the 

 arms and fingers; and modified motion (motion modified according 

 to the volition) is the result ; by this motion the parts of the watch 

 are prepared and adapted. So that it is not a man with which a 

 watch holds a relation as with a cause, but with a certain moving 

 power, which is the first cause, proceeding from the man, which 

 is exerted upon the works of the watch. If we would know 

 whether this power of motion, or its properties, communicated to 

 the works of the watch, still exist in them, we can scarcely answer 

 this question, without a better understanding of the relations of 

 moving powers in general. The power of motion appears to be 

 expended in the act to which it gives rise. And whether it enters 

 into the substance moved, or whether it is communicated from the 

 subject moved to the surrounding medium, in the course of its pro- 

 gression, is a point which in this place it is superfluous to discuss. 

 The watch being thus produced, is then identified as an effect by 

 its own constituents, and is maintained by relations subsisting be- 

 tween its parts. The powers which concurred to produce it are its 

 remote causes, and these may be withdrawn, or cease, while the 

 watch preserves its identity ; its real, true, or efficient causes are 

 ihose by which its identity is preserved, when its connection with the 

 remote or concurring agents has ceased ; and these causes cannot 

 well have a place in England, while the watch is at Calcutta. All 

 this is very obvious, and requires no more to be said about it. 



These principles of causation furnish the true basis for inquiry, 

 and are sufficient to lay down here. I shall hereafter see what 

 light they throw upon a particular application ; or rather I shall en- 

 deavour to shew how we ought to philosophize, in order to be agree- 

 able with these apparent truisms. In the mean time, it may not 

 be uninteresting to see how the general affairs of this world agree 

 with these notions, which I shall do after a looser fashion; intending 

 this rhapsody rather as a interlude than as a regular part of the piece. 



