Page:An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding - Hume (1748).djvu/119

 Operation; this we are so far from being immediately conscious of, that it must for ever escape our most diligent Search and Enquiry.

first; Is there any Principle in all Nature more mysterious than the Union of the Soul with the Body; by which a suppos'd spiritual Substance acquires such an Influence over a material one, that the most refin'd Thought is able to actuate the grossest Body? Were we empower'd, by a secret Wish, to remove Mountains, or controul the Planets in their Orbits; this extensive Authority over Matter would not be more extraordinary, nor more beyond the Bounds of our Comprehension. But if by Consciousness we perceiv'd any Power or Energy in the Will, we must know this Power; we must know its Connexion with the Effect; we must know the secret Union of Soul and Body, and the Nature of both these Substances; by which the one is able to operate, in so many Instances, upon the other.

Secondly, We are not able to move all the Organs of the Body with a like Authority; tho' we cannot assign any other Reason, besides Experience, for so remarkable a Difference betwixt the one and the other. Why has the Will an Influence over the Tongue and Fingers, and not over the Heart or Liver? This Question would never embarrass us, were we conscious