132. All other enquiries of men regard only matter of fact and
existence; and these are evidently incapable of demonstration.
Whatever is may not be. No negation of a fact can involve a
contradiction. The non-existence of any being, without exception, is
as clear and distinct an idea as its existence. The proposition, which
affirms it not to be, however false, is no less conceivable and
intelligible, than that which affirms it to be. The case is
different with the sciences, properly so called. Every proposition,
which is not true, is there confused and unintelligible. That the cube
root of 64 is equal to the half of 10, is a false proposition, and can
never be distinctly conceived. But that Caesar, or the angel
Gabriel, or any being never existed, may be a false proposition, but
still is perfectly conceivable, and implies no contradiction.
The existence, therefore, of any being can only be proved by
arguments from its cause or its effect; and these arguments are
founded entirely on experience. If we reason a priori, anything may
appear able to produce anything. The falling of a pebble may, for
aught we know, extinguish the sun; or the wish of a man control the
planets in their orbits. It is only experience, which teaches us the
nature and bounds of cause and effect, and enables us to infer the
existence of one object from that of another.
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