Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Volume 1.djvu/30

 The PREFACE. xvu

BUT, Memory, it is to be here noted, deals only in paft Things. It informs us, that on fuch an Occa- fion, fuch Means, under fuch Circumftances, produced fuch Effects : But its Notices are merely narrative or hiftorical ; and relate only to thofe numerical Means, Occafion, Circumftances, &c. which can never haopcn again. So that Memory fpeaks nothing to the prefent Cafe ; nor gives any Directions how the particular Purpofe now in view is to be attain'd. Its Language is only this, " Such Means did produce fuch and fuch

" Effefts." To make the Application of pall Things to prefent, is the Office of Reafon ; which comes in

where Memory ends ; and fubjoins, That " if fuch Means have done fo, fuch others will now do fo." And confequently 'tis Reafon that, in ftriftnefs, prefcribes the prefent Meafures.

OUR Inquiry now draws towards an Iffue ; and it only remains to fhew, in what manner Reafon attains this End, I e. what farther or higher Means there are, whereby it is enabled to furniln. Meafures for the prefent

Exigent, from the Circumftances of paft ones? .This it efreiSs by certain Perceptions of Similitude and Dijimi-

litude, Parity and Imparity, Cengruity and Incongruity, between former and prefent Means, Occafions, &rV. By virtue of thefe, the Mind infers, argues, or prefumes, That " inafmuch as fuch Means were followed by fuch " Effect ; fuch others, by parity of Reafon, will be followed by fuch others :" And that " as there are fuch " and fuch Differences between former and prefent Occafions and Circumftances ; there mat be fuch and fuch " other correfpondent Variations in the prefent Meafures, to keep up the Congruity." All which refolves into that

comprehenfive Word, Analogy. Thus it is found, that every Means, every Step of an Art, includes what

has been already fhewn of the whole Art ; and confifts of Matter, futniih'd by Memory, from Senfe and Ob- fervation ; and Form, furnifh'd by Reafon, from Comparifon, and Analogy.

AND thus it is Reafon that makes all our hiftorical Knowledge of any fignificancy to us. 'Tis this that makes former Cafes fubfervient to the prefent Occafion. We may look upon this, as the Inftrument or Faculty of transferring ; whereby the Effects of former Times and Places, are brought over to the prefent ones. Without

this, Senfe would lofe its chief ufe ; and Memory, with all its Copia, be no other than ufelel's Lumber. 'Tis this

Faculty alone that arranges our fenfible Ideas into any thing of Subordinacy. Memory only prefents 'em fuch as they firft appear'd ; wholly diftinft all, and independent of each other ; being connected by nothing but their Com- prefence, or Co-exiftence in point of Time and Place. The Eftabliftiment of all other Relations is the Work of Reafon ; which, from thefe few fenfible Relations, infers numerous others, e. g. from the Comprefence of two Things, in refpect of Time, Place, &c. it concludes that fome new Appearance perceiv'd in the one, was occa- fioned by the other ; and therefore, that there was fome Power in the latter, by which this was effected, EsV. And thus it is we come by the Relations or Perceptions of Caufe, EffeS ; Allwn, Pajion ; Property, Quality, &c. So that, to this Faculty of Reafon, we owe the whole Science of Pbyjicks; which is no other than the Doctrine of Caufes : At Ieaft, the Form thereof. The Matter, i. e. the Senfations themfclves, being furnifhed by Senfe, conftitute Natural Hijlory, the Bafis of all Knowledge whatever.

WE are now got to the Top of all our Natural Faculties, Reafon ; and the moft refined of all our Science,

Analogy. It remains to observe, that with this Natural Reafon, is connected Moral Inclination. In the Cafe,

for instance, of Good ; to the Voice of Reafon representing a Thing as fuch, is connected a Defire or Inclination towards the fame ; which is the Spring or Principle of all human Action, or Operation ; and commands a num- ber of fubordinate ones, the application of all which conftitutes what we call the Purfuit of fuch Good.

AND thus we are got to the bottom of all our moral Faculties, Defire or Inclination. Hence, as Reafon is

the End of Paffion, or Perception ; Inclination is the Beginning of Action : The one terminating in the Ap- prehenfion of Good, where the other commences. And again, as the Perception of Analogy is the ultimate Effect of Science ; the Inclination arifing by means hereof, is the Beginning of Art : the two being join'd, and as it were, inofculated in fome middle Point. And thus external or phyfical Things, come to influence or produce internal, or moral ones ; thus the whole Effect of fenfible Nature is applied to moral Nature. And thus do

Pbyfics take hold of Ethics ; God, of Man. Hence, moral Knowledge may be confider'd as a kind of Medium

between Perception, and Inclination ; Action, and Pafiion ; Science, and Art : Accordingly, it pofTeffes a middle Region in the Orb of Knowledge ; as being that by whose Mediation, a Communication is made between the two •, and the Effects of the one imparted, or handed over to the other.

BUT, to determine the Nature and Origin of Analogy ; and fhew how thefe Notices or Perceptions of Simi- litude, Parity, &c. by means whereof Reafon makes her Conclufions, are arrived at ; and whether they arife in the fame general manner as other Ideas, by the Agency of the divine Being, (the human Mind remaining wholly paflive therein) or whether we perceive or difcern 'em immediately, by fome intuitive Power inherent in the Na- ture of the Mind ; and fo are active therein—will need a little farther Attention.

IT muft be allow'd, then, that thefe Perceptions, Similitude, &?<:. are no proper Objects of Senfe : They do not come from without, as any part of the Matter of our Senfations : they are of no Colour, Figure, Solidity, or the like. Nor do they feem to arife immediately, and neceffarily, upon any Objects being prefented ; but rather to require fome Action, or Operation of the Mind, to produce and give 'em being. The Truth is, they are not any immediate Objects, but refu-lt from a Comparifon between feveral ; which Comparifon feems to be the Work of the Mind, bringing one to the other, and considering their Agreement and Difagreement.

BUT, tho this bids much faireft for Action of any thing yet alledg'd ; yet will the whole hereof be found to refolve into Senfe, and Memory.- — If, feeing a Sword run thro' a Perfon, I find he dies upon it ; and feeing after- wards a Spear run in like manner thro' another, I conclude he will likewife die : Whence is this, but that in the latter Cafe, fome of the Circumftances of the prefent Transaction, do neceffarily recal the Memory of the former ones : Since, fo far as they were alike, they were really the fame ? Confequently, as the Idea of Death was connected to the former ; it belongs equally to the latter. In effect, in two fimilar things, fo far as I fee a Similitude, fo far I fee the fame thing in both. Similitude is only a Repetition : and therefore what agrees to the one, muft, fo far as their Similitude goes, agree to the other, for the fame Reafon that it does to either. Hence, if I am paffive in remembering the Sword, and paffive likewife in feeing the Spear ; and the one be in fome refpects the fame with the other : I am not active in perceiving that Samenefs : fincc 'tis only the Perception of one thing twice over. And my knowing it to be the fame now, is only my remembring it to be what I had feen before ; with this difference, that the Power which firft reprefented it to me absolutely ; does now reprefent it with this additio- nal Circumftance, that I had feen it before.

AGAIN, if I argue or conclude that what agrees to, or arifes from one thing; will do fo in another thing fimilar only in fome Circumstances : This is founded wholly on a Prefumption, that the Agreement reaches to thofe Points upon which the former Effect depended. So that all phyfical Caufation, in refpea of us, is mere Prefumption. Accordingly, the great Regulte pbilofophandi established by Sir /. Newton, that " Effeas of the " fame kind, arife from the fame Caufe :" and that " Qualities which agree to all the Bodies hitherto known, " agree univerfally to all ;" are at bottom only Prefumptions. Yet are they juft phyfical Laws ; and the bell the Subjea will allow of.

e THUS