378 ELEMENTS OF SCIENCE 



motive to perform an act, we are conscious not merely 

 of the existence of that antecedent state of things which 

 is named " a motive/' and of that consequent which is 

 our " resolve," but of the motive also, as something 

 impelling us. We know and feel that it is active and 

 exerting an influence upon us ; that is, emits, as it were, 

 a force stirring our will. We have also an experience of 

 the force of causation when anything resists our will. 

 In the latter case the influence is antagonistic to an act 

 of will already formed ; in the former case the influence 

 excites towards the formation of such an act of will. 



Thus the " law of causation " is a truth borne in upon 

 us by its own evidence, not only spontaneously in each 

 instance of it which comes under .our notice, but on 

 reflection also ; and the more we reflect, the more we see 

 the evident truth and universal necessity of the law that 

 " every new existence is due to some cause" which law 

 is as certain as the law of contradiction itself. For if 

 that which has as yet no existence could nevertheless be 

 a cause, then it would no longer be the case that nothing 

 can at the same time both be and not be. But as to the 

 nature of the cause acting in any case, our power of 

 intellectual intuition tells us little save that it must, in 

 each case, be adequate to produce the effects to account 

 for which it is invoked. No child with a toy hammer 

 could level the great pyramid of Egypt; 110 ignorant 

 peasant could, translate a play of ^Eschylus ; and 

 no being devoid of intellect could perform a truly 

 virtuous action, or make known an ethical idea for 

 moral perception is but one form of intellectual activity. 

 That a cause must be adequate in order that a given 

 effect may be produced is, an absolute, universal, and 

 necessary truth, no less than is the law of causation 

 itself. 



