160 HUME 



VII 



This hesitation about admitting the existence of 

 such an animal as a centaur, be it observed, does 

 not deserve reproach, as scepticism, but moderate 

 praise, as mere scientific good faith. It need not 

 imply, and it does not, so far as I am concerned, 

 any a priori hypothesis that a centaur is an 

 impossible animal ; or, that his existence, if he did 

 exist, would violate the laws of nature. Indubit- 

 ably, the organisation of a centaur presents a 

 variety of practical difficulties to an anatomist and 

 physiologist ; and a good many of those generalisa- 

 tions of our present experience, which we are 

 pleased to call laws of nature, would be upset by 

 the appearance of such an animal, so that we 

 should have to frame new laws to cover our 

 extended experience. Every wise man will admit 

 that the possibilities of nature are infinite, and 

 include centaurs ; but he will not the less feel it 

 his duty to hold fast, for the present, by the 

 dictum of Lucretius, " Nam certe ex vivo Centauri 

 non fit imago," and to cast the entire burthen of 

 proof, that centaurs exist, on the shoulders of those 

 who ask him to believe the statement. 



Judged by the canons either of common sense, 

 or of science, which are indeed one and the same, 1 

 all " miracles " are centaurs, or they would not be 

 miracles ; and men of sense and science will deal 



1 See above (p. 68) the pregnant aphorism, "philosophical 

 decisions are nothing but the reflections of common life, method- 

 ised and corrected. " [1 893. ] 



