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powe £$ ; owthe co ^ trai ^ y , it is lyrimyn , oil all naiithr , that there ' p a connexion , an ^ ntiafate , inseparable connexion , between tiie one and the other . Bread Would Bo longer be bread , should , it e&ase to " be nutritions to the race of
beings -who have been nourished by U ;' or their natures must be totatly changed , not to be nourished by it any l < Vnger . Bui the laws by which tbese Secret powers of nutrition , that inward nature by which they are so
wonderfully adapted to the human constitution , iimy never l > e known . Thus has our sophist , with" more dexterity than ingenuous ' argumentation will permit , inferred that our ignorance of the arcana of nature destroys our knowledge of existing properties . "
But Air . Hume appears to mean by the word connection not conjunction merely , but that which conjoins , that which makes the conjunction necessary , that in short which could not be known without a knowledge of that inward nature in bodies ^ to which the x events owe the relation of cause
and effect . This distinction , we must ^ however acknowledge , is made not very consistently by a writer , who has laboured to shew that there is nothing without us or " within us that seenas
capable of saggestfrhg the notion of power © t necessary cbmiexibn . ' ^ Because we are ignorant / not that there are -properties , For this Mr . H . ' appears to allow , at the : same-tlrriti that he
rrtalnistitis we have no idea of power at all ; But because we are ig ^ norai ) fwbat makes them to be properties , or why certain events h ^ ve uniformly hitherto fallowed certain other events , he
ventures to maintain , " that there * s a step / ' a medium of i proof , wanted in our inference from the past to the future ; since to assert and re-assert the acknowledged conjunction of events , is not to . produce the medium of our reasoning . To thes 6 refinements of scepticism , Gur author has given a fcound practical reply : sh
€ f Wh ^ ould past experience be extPrided to future times , ah 4 other gbjects , ^ # hifch foi aught '' we % ~ noiv % may be ' only in ]*^ & akice > ' 'Styfirst Answer is , bjf the qiiestidn ; Why should we ' not continue our confidence iit one who , for aughtSve 'know , -may continue our friend ? WW is'itbt prone to deceive , mid from whom we haVc teoeired
fio ^ naay beiiefits ? My second vmiiwer is , ^ jtbeta , siiuiUr 4 ippoarw ) c < s ? j ^ o ^ tj ^^ Jm ¦^ tfety point , the tfuae , we ace eurt of suc-
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cess , If ^ we do not 'fu ^ eed , oai « f- « ^ 9 * Dot deceiviecius , we h ^ ve s \ iff «^ d ouFsei v *^ tp be deceived by app ^^ era- ^ ces . Nature has not changed her laws , and her manner
of acting , hut we were not safficieiijij' , ac ^ quainted with them . Our mist alee should make US more cautious , and . quicken our researches , that we may not act upon presumptions where Vye can avoid it . By reiterated experiments we shall be more
successful . 1 he disappointments we have siiftcT « d , during ^ our ixjnoraiice , wilf aaigment our knowledg-e ; and they may finally conduct us , through ) this ignorance , into a more extensive acquaintance with fadts , and the laws by which the different part $ of nature are governed . As o « r kntywled ^ e increases will our failures decrease , wttil
the past shall become an infallible rale for the future /' - ^ -Ppl" 291 , 2193 . We shall conclude our review of the animadversions on Mr . Hume ' s metaphysics , by laying before our readers
Dr . Cogan ' s reply to his objection ,, to miracles . According to , Mr . H . ^ hp ^ L |[ gh a revelation , and . therefore a rrjij ^^ Je may be possible ( for he . do . es i ^ ot ^ p ^ ar to deny this possibility ) , yet jtis wJiqIIv impossible that such ar * evenf sj ^ piyiji ^ be ' made credible to me , < f A iwi « aQle
( he say ?) is a violation of the laws ^ of nature ; and as a firm and unalterable experience has established these laws , the proof against a rttiraele ^ frotw ^ 'tlie very n at u re of the fact , ia as' en ti ^ as any argurtient from experience ? ean possibly be imagined . " 'Otir Wuihor rfeiifies : " As eVcrV rrian has ^ ri ekii ' ijil
right td ' propdse hi ^ demiition , t ; feeg ' leave to ^ uostitiite the following , to which all believers in irnracles ' will give a ready assent , and which unbelievers cannot confute , until they snail have annihilated * ll . die powers abdve them , ff ^ koever admits of' tih& e&istienct of a miracle > admits that some
pJiamomeitan > contrary to our usual cxpertertce of the course ^ of nature , has suddenly and unexpectedly taken jrtasee , and been m&tte tftmous to the setisds of indhnduals , by the immediate agency oj < tn intelligent poiver , superior to ttian , I' shall leave * it to others' to distinguiab'b ^ twfreri ther marvellous and miraculous—^ beA ^^ en the
deceptions of im [> 0 stor $ > ot lh ^> extravagances of superstitious credulity ^ and re ^ a } miracles , Oyir subject . iijcbnfined XQ t \\ v possibility pX a wiir ^ cle , wJtiitQhis j ^ d ^ gwaMpa ( ^ ydeaied jb y ti \ iadQJubfcmg p hUP ^ Qph ^ rr J [ Rsltiv ? . ahw& fefimtapn fee ^ l uut ^^ , and . ty : wh ^ t ftr ^ M a > c « ts will it be opposed ?) the possibility of a
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*^* ^ Ki ^ ^ j ^ KtMpm -Uii ^^ m ,
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1817, page 234, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2463/page/42/
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