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Part One, Section Sixty-four

29 September, 2015 - 11:49

To set this matter in a yet clearer light, I shall observe that what has been objected in Part One, Section Sixty amounts in reality to no more than this: ideas are not anyhow and at random produced, there being a certain order and connexion between them, like to that of cause and effect; there are also several combinations of them made in a very regular and artificial manner, which seem like so many instruments in the hand of nature that, being hid as it were behind the scenes, have a secret operation in producing those appearances which are seen on the theatre of the world, being themselves dis- cernible only to the curious eye of the philosopher. But, since one idea cannot be the cause of another, to what purpose is that connexion? And, since those instruments, being barely inefficacious perceptions in the mind, are not subservient to the production of natural effects, it is demanded why they are made; or, in other words, what reason can be assigned why God should make us, upon a close inspection into His works, behold so great variety of ideas so artfully laid togeth- er, and so much according to rule; it not being credible that He would be at the expense (if one may so speak) of all that art and regularity to no purpose.