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refutation to throw a piece of paper into the fire , and thus prove to the narrator the impossibility of what lie had asserted . But why could not paper have remained in the fames for five minutes unconsumed ? Because the experiment before us proves that fire has the property of destroying it . Should any one push his inquiries further ^ and ask why , because you find that fire has at present this property , do you infer that it has always possessed it ? I can onl y reply , that it is an assumption which I necessarily make . I cannot even think of the past without taking it for granted that the same causes have produced the same effects in every age and every country /*—P . 202 .
Our reason for doubting the assertion would be that men make mistakes aod tell falsehoods every day , while fire has always been known to burn . But , at the dame time , there is a kind and degree of testimony which would oblige us to believe the declaration , For reasons to be detailed hereafter , when we come to speak of the legitimate bounds of testimony . Our answer to the second question would be , that our belief that fire has always burned arises from a principle which we have no reason to mistrust , though we
would be far from engaging never to renounce our belief . The astronomer , therefore , is justified not only in confidently predicting eclipses many centuries before they happen , but also in particularizing with equal confidence the courses of the heavenly bodies thousands of years before the date of authentic history . As the author appears to be himself much impressed with the importance of applying the fact he has laboured to establish to past as well as future
events , we looked for some striking development of consequences , some illustrations of the history of human nature , some interpretations of past events which would throw light on the philosophy of matter or of mind ; something more than hints or assertions of the value of the object presented But none such did we find in this place . Before we had finished the
volume , however , we became aware , that though the author has carefully avoided the development of the consequences which he desires his readers to infer , he makes this chapter the basis of his reasonings on the legitimate bounds of testimony , which will be examined in their proper place . From our preceding remarks it will be seen that we agree with the author in the reasonings of his third chapter , which prove feat the uniformity of causation cannot be established by experience and testimony .
The next three chapters are excellent . Their object is to establish and illustrate the fact that the uniformity of causation is justly a basis of action and expectation with respect to mental as well as physical operations That this truth is not generall y allowed by philosophers appears to us extraordinary in every point of view ; and more especially , when we consider that they , as well as all other men , act as if possessed of the conviction we wish them to entertain . If two or three philosophers see a guinea
presented to a miser , they all expect him to accept it eagerly ; and if he refuses it , they all agree , whatever may be the difference of their opinions respecting a self-determining power , in supposing that some motive of extraordinary force influences him in his act of rejection . No one of them would believe that , in any age , a drunkard has refused wine , a school-boy a holiday , a warrior his laurels , or a poet his bays , without an inducement to such rejection . Every wise parent forms some expectation of the results of the discipline he employs in the education of his children . If such results do not appear , he concludes that some influence of which he is unaware is operating ; and a diligent examination probably displays to him the cause of his failure . He never believes that while all influences tend to render h ^ s
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Essays on the Pursuit of Truth . 631
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1829, page 631, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2576/page/31/
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