FINAL CAUSES. 345 



be tempted to say, that we infer design and pur- 

 pose from the works of man in one case, because 

 we have known these attributes in other cases 

 produce effects in some measure similar. But to 

 this we must reply, by asking how we come to 

 know the existence of human design and purpose 

 at first, and at all ? What we see around us are 

 certain appearances, things, successions of events ; 

 how come we ever to ascribe to other men the 

 thought and will of which we are conscious our- 

 selves ? How do we come to believe that there 

 are other men ? How are we led to elevate, in 

 our conceptions, some of the objects which we 

 perceive into persons ? Undoubtedly their actions, 

 their words induce us to do this : we see that 

 the manifestations which we observe must be 

 so understood, and no otherwise : we feel that 

 such actions, such events must be connected by 

 consciousness and personality ; that the actions 

 are not the actions of things, but of persons ; 

 not necessary and without significance, like the 

 falling of a stone, but voluntary and with pur- 

 pose like what we do ourselves. But this is not 

 a result of reasoning : we do not infer this from 

 any similar case which we have known ; since 

 we are now speaking of the first conception of 

 a will and purpose different from our own. In 

 arriving at such knowledge, we are aided only 

 by our own consciousness of what thought, pur- 

 pose, will, are : and possessing this regulative 



