Now whether it be so or
not, can only appear upon examination; and it is incumbent on these
philosophers to make good their assertion, by defining or describing
that necessity, and pointing it out to us in the operations of
material causes.
72. It would seem, indeed, that men begin at the wrong end of this
question concerning liberty and necessity, when they enter upon it
by examining the faculties of the soul, the influence of the
understanding, and the operations of the will. Let them first
discuss a more simple question, namely, the operations of body and
of brute unintelligent matter; and try whether they can there form any
idea of causation and necessity, except that of a constant conjunction
of objects, and subsequent inference of the mind from one to
another. If these circumstances form, in reality, the whole of that
necessity, which we conceive in matter, and if these circumstances
be also universally acknowledged to take place in the operations of
the mind, the dispute is at an end; at least, must be owned to be
thenceforth merely verbal. But as long as we will rashly suppose, that
we have some farther idea of necessity and causation in the operations
of external objects; at the same time, that we can find nothing
farther in the voluntary actions of the mind; there is no
possibility of bringing the question to any determinate issue, while
we proceed upon so erroneous a supposition.
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