Can the one opinion be
intelligible, while the other is not so?
We have, indeed, experience of ideas which fall into order
of themselves, and without any known cause. But, I am sure, we
have a much larger experience of matter which does the same; as,
in all instances of generation and vegetation, where the accurate
analysis of the cause exceeds all human comprehension. We have
also experience of particular systems of thought and of matter
which have no order; of the first in madness, of the second in
corruption. Why, then, should we think, that order is more
essential to one than the other? And if it requires a cause in
both, what do we gain by your system, in tracing the universe of
objects into a similar universe of ideas? The first step which we
make leads us on for ever. It were, therefore, wise in us to
limit all our inquiries to the present world, without looking
further. No satisfaction can ever be attained by these
speculations, which so far exceed the narrow bounds of human
understanding.
It was usual with the P/ERIPATETICS\, you know, C/LEANTHES\,
when the cause of any phenomenon was demanded, to have recourse
to their faculties or occult qualities; and to say, for instance,
that bread nourished by its nutritive faculty, and senna19 purged
by its purgative. But it has been discovered, that this
subterfuge was nothing but the disguise of ignorance; and that
these philosophers, though less ingenuous, really said the same
thing with the sceptics or the vulgar, who fairly confessed that
they knew not the cause of these phenomena.
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