A man who at noon leaves his purse full of gold on
the pavement at Charing Cross, may as well expect that it will fly
away like a feather, as that he will find it untouched an hour
after. Above one half of human reasonings contain inferences of a
similar nature, attended with more or less degrees of certainty
proportioned to our experience of the usual conduct of mankind in such
particular situations.
71. I have frequently considered, what could possibly be the
reason why all mankind, though they have ever, without hesitation,
acknowledged the doctrine of necessity in their whole practice and
reasoning, have yet discovered such a reluctance to acknowledge it
in words, and have rather shown a propensity, in all ages, to
profess the contrary opinion. The matter, I think, may be accounted
for after the following manner. If we examine the operations of
body, and the production of effects from their causes, we shall find
that all our faculties can never carry us farther in our knowledge
of this relation than barely to observe that particular objects are
constantly conjoined together, and that the mind is carried, by a
customary transition, from the appearance of one to the belief of
the other. But though this conclusion concerning human ignorance be
the result of the strictest scrutiny of this subject, men still
entertain a strong propensity to believe that they penetrate farther
into the powers of nature, and perceive something like a necessary
connexion between the cause and the effect.
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