COMMON BASIS OF EMPIRICISM AND RATIONALISM 53 



springing from the temporal order in which sensations are given, 

 is the source of the causal relation; and, except for the case of 

 demonstrative reasoning, it is the foundation of all inference. 

 It is this, which, as Berkeley says, &quot;gives us a sort of foresight 

 which enables us to regulate our actions for the benefit of life.&quot; 

 And Hume expressly holds that &quot;the only connection or relation 

 of objects, \vhich can lead us beyond the immediate impressions 

 of our memory and senses, is that of cause and effect.&quot; The 

 basis of syllogistic inference is, of course, different. This is to 

 be found in that extraordinary faculty of comparison w r hich plays 

 so great a part in the classic empiricism. 



But the importance of this exception must not be exaggerated. 

 Hume s criticism of the notion of the self, resolving it into a mere 

 sensational complex, strikes a death-blow at the conception of 

 an act of the mind. Though he himself may not admit it, the 

 possibility of an &quot;arbitrary union of two ideas in the fancy,&quot; 

 &quot;without a connecting principle,&quot; has disappeared. The faculty 

 of comparison, like all other faculties, must be explained in terms 

 of the natural behavior of the ideas themselves. Thus empiri 

 cism takes the form of a pure associationism and thus the 

 identity of the causal and the logical orders becomes complete. 



