Page:An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding - Hume (1748).djvu/109

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Of Probability.
97

for Instance, another ten Times, and another once. As a great Number of Views do here concur in one Event, they fortify and confirm it to the Imagination, beget that Sentiment we call Belief, and give it the Preference above its Antagonist, which is not supported by an equal Number of Experiments, and occurs not so frequently to the Thought in transferring the past to the future. Let any one try to account for this Operation of the Mind upon any of the receiv'd Systems of Philosophy, and he will be sensible of the Difficulty. For my part, I shall think it sufficient, if the present Hints excite the Curiosity of Philosophers, and make them sensible how extremely defective all receiv'd Theories are, in treating of such curious and such sublime Subjects.


ESSAY