64 HUME i 



it must be equally impossible to form any notion of its 

 powers and qualities otherwise than from careful and exact 

 experiments, and the observation of those particular effects 

 which result from its different circumstances and situa- 

 tions. And though we must endeavour to render all our 

 principles as universal as possible, by tracing up our experi- 

 ments to the utmost, and explaining all effects from the 

 simplest and fewest causes, 'tis still certain we cannot go 

 beyond experience: and any hypothesis that pretends to 

 discover the ultimate original qualities of human nature, 

 ought at first to be rejected as presumptuous and chimer- 

 ical 



" But if this impossibility of explaining ultimate princi- 

 ples should be esteemed a defect in the science of man, I 

 will venture to affirm, that it is a defect common to it with 

 all the sciences, and all the arts, in which we can employ 

 ourselves, whether they be such as are cultivated in the 

 schools of the philosophers, or practised in the shops of the 

 meanest artizans. None of them can go beyond experience, 

 or establish any principles which are not founded on that 

 authority. Moral philosophy has, indeed, this peculiar dis- 

 advantage, which is not found in natural, that in collecting 

 its experiments, it cannot make them purposely, with pre- 

 meditation, and after such a manner as to satisfy itself con- 

 cerning every particular difficulty which may arise. When 

 I am at a loss to know the effects of one body upon another 

 in any situation I need only put them in that situation, and 

 observe what results from it. But should I endeavour to 

 clear up in the same manner any * doubt in moral philoso- 

 phy, by placing myself in the same case with that which I 

 consider, 'tis evident this reflection and premeditation 

 would so disturb the operation of my natural principles, 



* The manner in which Hume constantly refers to the 

 results of the observation of the contents and the processes 

 of his own mind clearly shows that he has here inadvertently 

 overstated the case. 



