What is the Cause?

52. Is it absurd to take away natural Causes, and ascribe every thing to the immediate Operation of Spirits?

We must no longer say upon these Principles that Fire heats, or Water cools, but that a Spirit heats, and so forth. Would not a Man be deservedly laught at, who should talk after this manner?

I answer, he would so; in such things we ought to think with the Learned, and speak with the Vulgar.

They who to Demonstration are convinced of the truth of the Copernican System, do nevertheless say the Sun rises, the Sun sets, or comes to the Meridian: And if they affected a contrary Stile in common talk, it would without doubt appear very ridiculous. A little Reflexion on what is here said will make it manifest, that the common use of Language would receive no manner of Alteration or Disturbance from the Admission of our Tenets.

52. In the ordinary Affairs of Life, any Phrases may be retained, so long as they excite in us proper Sentiments, or Dispositions to act in such a manner as is necessary for our well-being, how false soever they may be, if taken in a strict and speculative Sense. Nay this is unavoidable, since Propriety being regulated by Custom, Language is suited to the received Opinions, which are not always the truest.

Hence it is impossible, even in the most rigid philosophic Reasonings, so far to alter the Bent and Genius of the Tongue we speak, as never to give a handle for Cavillers to pretend Difficulties and Inconsistencies. But a fair and ingenuous Reader will collect the Sense, from the Scope and Tenor and Connexion of a Discourse, making allowances for those inaccurate Modes of Speech, which use has made inevitable.

Some of the Schoolmen think that there are no Corporeal Causes.

They allow Matter to exist, yet will have God alone to be the immediate efficient Cause of all things.

These Men saw, that amongst all the Objects of Sense, there was none which had any Power or Activity included in it, and that by Consequence this was likewise true of whatever Bodies they supposed to exist without the Mind, like unto the immediate Objects of Sense.

But then, that they should suppose an innumerable Multitude of created Beings, which they acknowledge are not capable of producing any one Effect in Nature, and which therefore are made to no manner of purpose, since God might have done every thing as well without them; this I say, though we should allow it possible, must yet be a very unaccountable and extravagant Supposition.

54. In the eighth place, The universal concurrent Assent of Mankind may be thought by some, an invincible Argument in behalf of Matter, or the Existence of external things. Must we suppose the whole World to be mistaken?

And if so, what Cause can be assigned of so widespread and predominant an Error?

I answer, First, That upon a narrow Inquiry, it will not perhaps be found, so many as is imagined do really believe the Existence of Matter or Things without the Mind. Strictly speaking, to believe that which involves a Contradiction, or has no meaning in it, is impossible: And whether the foregoing Expressions are not of that sort, I refer it to the impartial Examination of the Reader.

In one sense indeed, Men may be said to believe that Matter exists, that is, they act as if the immediate Cause of their Sensations, which affects them every moment and is so nearly present to them, were some senseless unthinking Being.

But that they should clearly apprehend any Meaning marked by those Words, and form thereof a settled speculative Opinion, is what I am not able to conceive. This is not the only Instance wherein Men impose upon themselves, by imagining they believe those Propositions they have often heard, though at bottom they have no meaning in them.

55. But secondly, Though we should grant a Notion to be ever so universally and stedfastly adhered to, yet this is but a weak Argument of its Truth, to whoever considers what a vast number of Prejudices and false Opinions are every where embraced with the utmost Tenaciousness, by the unreflecting (which are the far greater) Part of Mankind.

There was a time when the Antipodes and Motion of the Earth were looked upon as monstrous Absurdities, even by Men of Learning: And if it be considered what a small proportion they bear to the rest of Mankind, we shall find that at this Day, those Notions have gained but a very inconsiderable footing in the World.

56. But it is demanded, that we assign a Cause of this Prejudice, and account for its obtaining in the World. To this I answer, That Men knowing they perceived several Ideas, whereof they themselves were not the Authors, as not being excited from within, nor depending on the Operation of their Wills, this made them maintain, those Ideas or Objects of Perception had an Existence independent of, and without the Mind, without ever dreaming that a Contradiction was involved in those Words.

But Philosophers having plainly seen, that the immediate Objects of Perception do not exist without the Mind, they in some degree corrected the mistake of the Vulgar, but at the same time run into another which seems no less absurd, to wit, that there are certain Objects really existing without the Mind, or having a Subsistence distinct from being perceived, of which our Ideas are only Images or Resemblances, imprinted by those Objects on the Mind.

This Notion of the Philosophers owes its Origin to the same Cause with the former, namely, their being conscious that they were not the Authors of their own Sensations, which they evidently knew were imprinted from without, and which therefore must have some Cause, distinct from the Minds on which they are imprinted.

57. But why they should suppose the Ideas of Sense to be excited in us by things in their likeness, and not rather have recourse to Spirit which alone can act, may be accounted for, First, because they were not aware of the Repugnancy there is, as well in supposing things like unto our Ideas existing without, as in attributing to them Power or Activity.

Secondly, because the supreme Spirit which excites those Ideas in our Minds, is not marked out and limited to our view by any particular finite Collection of sensible Ideas, as humane Agents are by their Size, Complexion, Limbs, and Motions. And thirdly, because his Operations are regular and uniform. Whenever the Course of Nature is interrupted by a Miracle, Men are ready to own the Presence of a superior Agent.

But when we see things go on in the ordinary Course, they do not excite in us any Reflexion; their Order and Concatenation, though it be an Argument of the greatest Wisdom, Power, and Goodness in their Creator, is yet so constant and familiar to us, that we do not think them the immediate Effects of a Free Spirit: especially since Inconstancy and Mutability in acting, though it be an Imperfection, is looked on as a mark of Freedom.

58. Tenthly, It will be objected, that the Notions we advance, are inconsistent with several sound Truths in Philosophy and Mathematicks. For Example, The Motion of the Earth is now universally admitted by Astronomers, as a Truth grounded on the clearest and most convincing Reasons; but on the foregoing Principles, there can be no such thing.

For Motion being only an Idea, it follows that if it be not perceived, it exists not; but the Motion of the Earth is not perceived by Sense.

I answer, That Tenet, if rightly understood, will be found to agree with the Principles we have premised: For the Question, whether the Earth moves or no, amounts in reality to no more than this, to wit, whether we have reason to conclude from what hath been observed by Astronomers, that if we were placed in such and such Circumstances, and such or such a Position and Distance, both from the Earth and Sun, we should perceive the former to move among the Choir of the Planets, and appearing in all respects like one of them: And this, by the established Rules of Nature, which we have no reason to mistrust, is reasonably collected from the Phænomena.

59. We may, from the Experience we have had of the Train and Succession of Ideas in our Minds, often make, I will not say uncertain Conjectures, but sure and well-grounded Predictions, concerning the Ideas we shall be affected with, pursuant to a great Train of Actions, and be enabled to pass a right Judgment of what would have appeared to us, in case we were placed in Circumstances very different from those we are in at present. Herein consists the Knowledge of Nature, which may preserve its Use and Certainty very consistently with what hath been said. It will be easy to apply this to whatever Objections of the like sort may be drawn from the Magnitude of the Stars, or any other Discoveries in Astronomy or Nature.