Page:An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding - Hume (1748).djvu/169

 not to have obviated or remov'd all Objections to this Theory, with regard to Necessity and Liberty. I can foresee other Objections, deriv'd from Topics, which have not here been treated of. It may be said, for Instance, that if voluntary Actions be subjected to the same Laws of Necessity with the Operations of Matter, there is a continu'd Chain of necessary Causes, pre-ordain'd and pre-determin'd, reaching from the original Cause of all, to every single Volition of every human Creature. No Contingency any where in the Universe; no Indifference; no Liberty. While we act, we are, at the same time, acted upon. The ultimate Author of all our Volitions is the Creator of the World, who first bestow'd Motion on this immense Machine, and plac'd all Beings in that particular Position, whence every subsequent Event, by an inevitable Necessity, must result. Human Actions, therefore, can either have no Turpitude at all, as proceeding from so good a Cause; or if they can have any moral Turpitude, they must involve our Creator in the same Guilt, while he is acknowledged to be their ultimate Cause and Author. For as a Man, who fired a Mine, is answerable for all the Consequences, whether the Train he employ'd be long or short; so wherever a continu'd Chain of necessary Causes are fix'd, that Being, either finite or