Page:An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding - Hume (1748).djvu/228

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
216
ESSAY XI.

The religious Hypothesis, therefore, must be consider'd only as a particular Method of accounting for the visible Phænomena of the Universe: But no just Reasoner will ever presume to infer from it any single Fact, and alter or add to these Phænomena, in any single Particular. If you think, that the Appearances of Things prove such Causes, 'tis allowable for you to draw an Inference concerning their Existence. In such complicated and sublime Subjects, every one should be indulged in the Liberty of Conjecture and Argument. But here you ought to rest. If you come backward, and arguing from your infer'd Causes, conclude, that any other Fact has existed, or will exist, in the Course of Nature, which may serve for a fuller Display of particular Attributes; I must admonish you, that you have departed from the Method of Reasoning, attach'd to the present Subject, and must certainly have added something to the Attributes of the Cause, beyond what appears in the Effect; otherwise you could never, with tolerable Sense or Propriety, add any thing to the Effect, which might render it more worthy of the Cause.

Where, then, is the Odiousness of that Doctrine, which I teach in my School, or rather, which I examine in my Gardens? Or what do you find in this whole Question, wherein the Security of good Mo-rals,