CONTEMPORARY PHILOSOPHY. 13 



circumstance more astonishing than the belief in regard 

 to causality that seems, in a few years after the death 

 of Hume, to have obtained in Scotland in consequence of 

 that philosopher's peculiar findings in his discussion of 

 the problem. Brown it was who formulated this belief, 

 and to the following effect : Causation means no more 

 than " invariableness of antecedence." Power is " only 

 another word for expressing abstractly and briefly the 

 antecedence itself and the invariableness of the relation." 

 Power, that is, so far as it shall be held to be synonymous 

 with " efficiency," is altogether denied. There is " in- 

 variableness," and that is the " efficiency : " if more or 

 other efficiency is wanted than invariableness, then 

 efficiency there is none. " The feeling that one object 

 will never appear without being followed by another - 

 that is " the essence of our idea of efficiency." It is in 

 this reference that, as I remark elsewhere, Burton has, 

 in his Life of Hume, these astounding words : " This 

 refers to the notion, which now may be termed obsolete, 

 at least in philosophy, of an inherent power in the cause 

 to produce the effect ! " These words were printed in 

 1846 ! We may say, then, that the belief in question 

 has had, to use the dialect, its " votaries " in Scotland, 

 actually, for the best part of a century ! It is Hume 

 that is credited with the proposition ; and there is no such 

 proposition in Hume. Hume knows, and never denies, 

 that a cause has efficacy, efficiency, power to produce its 

 effect ; he knows, and never denies, that there is a 

 reason for the necessity between them : he only asks, 

 Can you, philosophically, point it out ? No doubt, his 

 conclusion is, that it the reason can not be pointed 

 out ; but then, that is all : he asks for no more. Give 

 him that, and he confidently marches up with it to the 

 very entrenchments of " superstition ; " but he is perfectly 

 aware all the time that a cause has efficacy to produce 



