176 HUME 



VIII 



knew of any valid reply to Philo's arguments in 

 the following passages of the " Dialogues," he has 

 dealt unfairly by the reader in concealing it : 



" But because I know you are not much swayed by names 

 and authorities, I shall endeavour to show you, a little more 

 distinctly, the inconveniences of that Anthropomorphism, which 

 you have embraced ; and shall prove that there is no ground 

 to suppose a plan of the world to be formed in the Divine 

 mind, consisting of distinct ideas, differently arranged, in the 

 same manner as an architect forms in his head the plan of a 

 house which he intends to execute. 



" It is not easy, I own, to see what is gained by this sup- 

 position, whether we judge the matter by Reason or by Exper- 

 ience. We are still obliged to mount higher in order to find 

 the cause of this cause, which you had assigned as satisfactory 

 and conclusive. 



"If Reason (I mean abstract reason, derived from inquiries a 

 priori) be not alike mute with regard to all questions concern- 

 ing cause and effect, this sentence at least it will venture to 

 pronounce : That a mental world, or universe of ideas, requires 

 a cause as much as does a material world or universe of 

 objects ; and, if similar in its arrangement, must require a 

 similar cause. For what is there in this subject, which should 

 occasion a different conclusion or inference ? In an abstract 

 view they are entirely alike ; and no difficulty attends the one 

 supposition, which is not common to both of them. 



" Again, when we will needs force Experience to pronounce 

 some sentence, even on those subjects which lie beyond her 

 sphere, neither can she perceive any material difference in this 

 particular, between these two kinds of worlds ; but finds them 

 to be governed by similar principles, and to depend upon an 

 equal variety of causes in their operations. We have specimens 

 in miniature of both of them. Our own mind resembles the 

 one ; a vegetable or animal body the other. Let experience, 

 therefore, judge from these samples. Nothing seems more 

 delicate, with regard to its causes, than thought : and as these 

 never operate in two persons after the same manner, so 



