not in their real Sentiments. Necessity, according to the Sense in which it is here taken, has never yet been rejected, nor can ever, I think, be rejected, by any Philosopher. It may only, perhaps, be pretended, that the Mind can perceive, in the Operations of Matter, some farther Connexion betwixt the Cause and Effect; and a Connexion, which has not Place in the voluntary Actions of intelligent Beings. Now whether it be so or not, can only appear upon Examination, and it is incumbent on these Philosophers to make good their Assertion, by defining or describing that Necessity, and pointing it out to us, in the Operations of material Causes.
It would seem, indeed, that Men begin at the wrong End of this Question concerning Liberty and Necessity, when they enter upon it by examining the Faculties of the Soul, the Influence of the Understanding, and the Operations of the Will. Let them first discuss a more simple Question, viz. the Operations of Body and of brute unintelligent Matter; and try if they can there form any Idea of Causation and Necessity, except that of a constant Conjunction of Objects, and subsequent Inference of the Mind from one to another. If these Circumstances form, in reality, the whole of that Necessity, which we can conceive in Matter, and if these Circumstances be also universally acknowledg'd to take place in the Operations of the Mind, the Dispute is at an End; or, atleast,
