Page:An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding - Hume (1748).djvu/157

 ration of the Ax or Wheel. His Mind runs along a certain Train of Ideas: The Refusal of the Soldiers to consent to his Escape; the Action of the Executioner; the Separation of the Head and Body; Bleeding, convulsive Motions, and Death. Here is a connected Chain of natural Causes and voluntary Actions; but the Mind feels no Difference betwixt them, in passing from one Link to another: nor is less certain of the future Event than if it were connected with the Objects present to the Memory or Senses, by a Train of Causes, cemented together by what we are pleas'd to call a physical Necessity. The same experienc'd Union has the fame Effect on the Mind, whether the united Objects be Motives, Volitions, and Actions; or Figure and Motion. We may change the Names of Things; but their Nature and their Operation on the Understanding never change.

frequently consider'd, what could possibly be the Reason, why all Mankind, tho' they have ever, without Hesitation, acknowledged the Doctrine of Necessity, in their whole Practice and Reasoning, have yet discover'd such a Reluctance to acknowledge it in Words, and have rather shewn a Propensity, in all Ages, to profess the contrary Opinion. The Matter, I think, may be accounted for, after the following Manner. If we examine the Operations of Bodies and the Production of Effects from their Causes,