At
least, it must be acknowledged that there is here a consequence
drawn by the mind; that there is a certain step taken; a process of
thought, and an inference, which wants to be explained. These two
propositions are far from being the same, I have found that such an
object has always been attended with such an effect, and I foresee,
that other objects, which are, in appearance, similar, will be
attended with similar effects. I shall allow, if you please, that
the one proposition may justly be inferred from the other: I know,
in fact, that it always is inferred. But if you insist that the
inference is made by a chain of reasoning, I desire you to produce
that reasoning. The connexion between these propositions is not
intuitive. There is required a medium, which may enable the mind to
draw such an inference, if indeed it be drawn by reasoning and
argument. What that medium is, I must confess, passes my
comprehension; and it is incumbent on those to produce it, who
assert that it really exists, and is the origin of all our conclusions
concerning matter of fact.
* The word, Power, is here used in a loose and popular sense. The
more accurate explication of it would give additional evidence to this
argument. See Sect. 7.
30. This negative argument must certainly, in process of time,
become altogether convincing, if many penetrating and able
philosophers shall turn their enquiries this way and no one be ever
able to discover any connecting proposition or intermediate step,
which supports the understanding in this conclusion.
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