22. All reasonings concerning matter of fact seem to be founded on
the realtion of Cause and Effect. By means of that relation alone we
can go beyond the evidence of our memory and senses. If you were to
ask a man, why he believes any matter of fact, which is absent; for
instance, that his friend is in the country, or in France; he would
give you a reason; and this reason would be some other fact; as a
letter received from him, or the knowledge of his former resolutions
and promises. A man finding a watch or any other machine in a desert
island, would conclude that there had once been men in that island.
All our reasonings concerning fact are of the same nature. And here it
is constantly supposed that there is a connexion between the present
fact and that which is inferred from it. Were there nothing to bind
them together, the inference would be entirely precarious. The hearing
of an articulate voice and rational discourse in the dark assures us
of the presence of some person: Why? because these are the effects
of the human make and fabric, and closely connected with it. If we
anatomize all the other reasonings of this nature, we shall find
that they are founded on the relation of cause and effect, and that
this relation is either near or remote, direct or collateral.
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