Page:An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding - Hume (1748).djvu/127

 from the Author of Nature; 'tis the Deity himself, they say, who, by a particular Volition, moves the second Ball, being determin'd to this Operation by the Impulse of the first Ball; in Consequence of those general Laws, which he has laid down to himself in the Government of the Universe. But Philosophers, advancing still in their Enquiries, discover, that, as we are totally ignorant of the Power, on which depends the mutual Operation of Bodies, we are no less ignorant of that Power, on which depends the Operation of Mind on Body, or of Body on Mind; nor are we able, either from our Senses or Consciousness, to assign the ultimate Principle, in the one Case more than in the other. The same Ignorance, therefore, reduces them to the same Conclusion. They assert, that the Deity is the immediate Cause of the Union betwixt Soul and Body, and that they are not the Organs of Sense, which, being agitated by external Objects, produce Sensations in the Mind; but that 'tis a particular Volition of our omnipotent Maker, which excites such a Sensation, in Consequence of such a Motion in the Organ. In like manner, it is not any Energy in the Will, that produces local Motion in our Members: 'Tis God himself, who is pleas'd to second our Will, in itself impotent, and to command that Motion, which we erroneously attribute to our own Power and Efficacy. Nor do Philosophers stop at this Conclusion. They some-