Page:An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding - Hume (1748).djvu/208

 Is the Consequence just; because some human Testimony has the utmost Force and Authority in some Cases, when it relates the Battles of Philippi or Pharsalia, for Instance; that therefore all Kinds of Testimony must, in all Cases, have equal Force and Authority? Suppose the Cæsarean and Pompeian Factions had, each of them, challeng'd the Victory in these Battles, and the Historians of each Party had uniformly ascrib'd the Advantage to their own Side; how could Mankind, at this Distance, have been able to determine betwixt them? The Contrariety is equally strong betwixt the Miracles related by Herodotus or Plutarch, and those related by Mariana, Bede, or any monkish Historian.

Wise lend a very academic Faith to every Report, which favours the Passion of the Reporter, whether it magnifies his Country, his Family, or himself, or in any other Way strikes in with his natural Inclinations and Propensities. But what greater Temptation than to appear a Missionary, a Prophet, an Ambassador from Heaven? Who would not encounter many Dangers and Difficulties, to attain so sublime a Character? Or if, by the Help of Vanity and a heated Imagination, a Man has first made a Convert of himself, and enter'd seriously into the Delusion; who