Heat and
light are collateral effects of fire, and the one effect may justly be
inferred from the other.
23. If we would satisfy ourselves, therefore, concerning the
nature of that evidence, which assures us of matters of fact, we
must enquire how we arrive at the knowledge of cause and effect.
I shall venture to affirm, as a general proposition, which admits of
no exception, that the knowledge of this relation is not, in any
instance, attained by reasonings a priori; but arises entirely from
experience, when we find that any particular objects are constantly
conjoined with each other. Let an object be presented to a man of ever
so strong natural reason and abilities; if that object be entirely new
to him, he will not be able, by the most accurate examination of its
sensible qualities, to discover any of its causes or effects. Adam,
though his rational faculties be supposed, at the very first, entirely
perfect, could not have inferred from the fluidity and transparency of
water that it would suffocate him, or from the light and warmth of
fire that it would consume him. No object ever discovers, by the
qualities which appear to the senses, either the causes which produced
it, or the effects which will arise from it; nor can our reason,
unassisted by experience, ever draw any inference concerning real
existence and matter of fact.
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