proof then which the essayist admits from testimony, is, by his own estimate, not only superior to a direct and full proof, but even superior to as entire a proof as any argument from experience can possibly be imagined. Whence, I pray, doth testimony acquire such amazing evidence? Testimony,' says the author, hath no evidence, but what it derives 'from experience. These differ from each other

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only as the species from the genus.' Put then for testimony, the word experience, which in this case is equivalent, and the conclusion will run thus: Here is a proof from experience, which is superior to as entire a proof from experience, as can possibly be imagined. This deduction from the author's words, the reader will perceive, is strictly logical. What the meaning of it is, I leave to Mr Hume to explain.

What has been above deduced, how much soever it be accounted, is not all that is implied in the concession made by the author. He further says, that the miraculous fact, so attested, ought not only to be received, but to be received for certain. Is it not enough, Sir, that you have shown that your most full, most direct, most perfect argument may be overcome; Will nothing satisfy you now but its destruction? One would imagine, that you had conjured up this demon, by whose irresistible arm you proposed to give a mortal blow to religion, and render scepticism triumphant, (that you had conjured him up, I say) for no other purpose, but to

show with what facility you could lay him. To be serious, does not this author remember, that he had oftener than once laid it down as a maxim, That when there is proof against proof, we must incline to the superior, still with a diminution of assurance, in proportion to the force of its antagonist *? But when a fact is received for certain, there can be no sensible diminution of assurance, such diminution always implying some doubt and uncertainty. Consequently the general proof from experience, though as entire as any argument from experience can possibly be imagined, is not only surmounted, but is really in comparison as nothing, or, in Mr Hume's phrase, undergoes annihilation, when balanced with the particular proof from testimony. Great indeed, it must be acknowledged, is the force of truth. This conclusion, on the principles I have been endeavouring to establish, has nothing in it, but what is conceivable and just; but on the prinIciples of the essay, which deduce all the force of testimony from experience, serves only to confound the understanding, and to involve the subject in midnight darkness.

It is therefore manifest, that either this author's principles condemn his own method of judging, with regard to miraculous facts; or that his method of judging subverts his principles, and is a tacit desertion of them. Thus, that impregnable for

* Page 178, 180.

tress, the asylum of infidelity, which he so lately gloried in having erected, is in a moment abandoned by him, as a place untenable.

SECTION IV.

There is no peculiar presumption against such miracles as are said to have been wrought in support of religion.

Is it then so, that the decisive argument, the essayist flattered himself he had discovered *, which, with the wise and learned, was to prove an everlasting check to all kinds of superstitious delusion, and would consequently be useful, as long as the world endures; is it so, that this boasted argument has, in fact, little or no influence on the discoverer himself! But this author may well be ex→→ · cused. He cannot be always the metaphysician. He cannot soar incessantly in the clouds. constant elevation suits not the lot of humanity. He must sometimes, whether he will or not, descend to a level with other people, and fall into the humble track of common sense. One thing however, he is resolved on: If he cannot by meta

Page 174.

Such

physic spells silence the most arrogant bigotry and superstition; he will at any rate, though for this purpose he should borrow aid from what he hath no liking to, trite and popular topics; he will, at any rate, free himself from their impertinent solicitations.

There are accordingly two principles in human nature, by which he accounts for all the relations that have ever been in the world, concerning miracles. These principles are the passion for the marvellous, and the religious affection *; against either of which singly, the philosopher, he says, ought ever to be on his guard; but incomparably more so, when both happen to be in strict confederacy together. For if the spirit of religion join itself to the love of wonder, there is an end of common sense; and human testimony in these circumstances loses all pretensions to ⚫ authority t. Notwithstanding this strong affirmation, there is reason to suspect that the author is not, in his heart, so great an enemy to the love of wonder as he affects to appear. No man can make a greater concession in favour of the wonderful, than he hath done in the passage quoted in the preceding section. No man was ever fonder of paradox, and, in theoretical subjects, of every notion that is remote from sentiments universally received. This love of paradoxes, he owns himself,

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*Page 184, 185..

Page 185.

that both his enemies and his friends reproach him with. There must surely be some foundation for so universal a censure. If therefore, in respect of the passion for the marvellous, he differ from other. people, the difference arises from a particular delicacy in this gentleman, which makes him nauseate even to wonder with the crowd. He is of that singular turn that where every body is struck with astonishment, he can see nothing wondrous in the least; at the same time he discovers prodigies, where no soul but himself ever dreamed that there

were any.

We may therefore rest assured of it, that the author might be conciliated to the love of wonder, provided the spirit of religion be kept at a distance, against which he hath unluckily contracted a mortal antipathy, against which he is resolved to wage eternal war. When he but touches this subject, he loses at once his philosophic equanimity, and speaks with an acrimony unusual to him on other occasions. Something of this kind appears from the citations already made. But if these should not satisfy, I shall produce one or two more, which certainly will. There is a second supposition the author makes, of a miraculous event, in a certain manner circumstanced and attested, which he declares, and I think with particular propriety, that he would

not have the least inclination to be

* Dedication to the four Dissertations.