Page:An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding - Hume (1748).djvu/235

 'twere impossible for us to argue in this Manner; because our Knowledge of all the Qualities, which we ascribe to him, being in that Case deriv'd from the Production, 'tis impossible they could point to any thing farther, or be the Foundation of any new Inferences. The Print of a Foot in the Sand can only prove, when consider'd alone, that there was some Pigure adapted to it, by which it was produc'd: But the Print of a human Foot proves likewise, from our other Experience, that there was probably another Foot, which also left its Impression, tho' essac'd by Time or other Accidents. Here we mount from the Effect to the Cause; and descending again from the Cause, infer Alterations in the Effect; but this is not a Continuation of the same simple Chain of Reasoning. We comprehend in this Case a hundred other Experiences and Observations, concerning the usual Figure and Members of that Species of Animal, without which this Method of Argument must be consider'd as altogether fallacious and sophistical.

Case is not the same with our Reasonings from the Works of Nature. The Deity is known to us only by his Productions, and is a single Being in the Universe, not comprehended under any Species or Genus, from whose experienc'd Attributes or Qualities, we can by Analogy, infer any Attribute or Quality in him. As the Universe shows Wisdom and Goodness, we infer Wisdom and Goodness: As it