But as long as the notions of Mr. Hume shall prevail, inquiries of this nature
will be instituted in vain; nor indeed is there any received doctrine upon the
relation of Cause and Effect, which can be securely used, as an efficient instrument in the advancement of science.
Bishop Berkeley thought a Cause must necessary by
active, and so a
spirit! And it is universally imagined that a Cause is, in its very essence,
before its Effects.
There is also, a notion that one object is
sufficient to an event; when many are perhaps wanted in order to produce it.
I pretend not to have found the whole nature of this relation;-But I shortly
recapitulate what I have advanced.
1st.--The junction of two or more qualities or objects is wanted to every new
creation of a new quality.
2dly.--That any
one of the qualities or objects needful in order to the formation of another, may be termed a
Cause, because
absolutely necessary, and, when all the other needful circumstances are duly placed with which it is to unite,
efficient to its production.
But, 3dly. The
whole number of objects existing, which are necessary to it, may also, under one complex
idea, be deemed
the one whole cause necessary.
4thly.--The
union of these, is the proximate Cause of, and is
one with the Effect.
5thly.--The
objects therefore are
before the Effects, but the
union of them is
in and
with the Effects.
This ambiguity, arising from the necessity of naming each object, wanted to an end, and all that are wanted to it, and the junction necessary to it, the
Cause of it, is a fruitful source of error in every branch of analytical philosophy.
6thly.--When Effects or
new qualities are once formed, theymay re-act as Causes, in order to keep up the original objects, which contributed to their formation.
7thly.--Although the very word Effect implies a
change in qualities, yet among a set of new qualities formed,
all of them are not therefore entirely changed.
The spark first elicited from the tinder, is kept separate,as to its appearance,
its warmth and light, amidst all the alteration, in which it involves the objects
it approaches.
8thly.--It is not necessary, however, that any of the Effects, should resemble
any of the objects, by whose union they are caused;-and in general, an entire
mixture, junction and consusison of qualities involves the whole original objects
in ruins, whilst it strikes out a vast many new and altered ones, creating other
masses, other complex objects, totally unlike those whose union was their Cause.
On the other hand, it sometimes appears that nature intends to render one individual essence, the prime object intendeed to be preserved; and therefore in its mixture with others, ordains that they shall only administer to it, by contributing to the perpeutal nourishment, support, and increase of its qualities; as in the growth of plants and animals; or the vigour, improvement, character, individuality, &c. of the sentient principle.--