thers, as well as of my own. Many examples are given in the chapter above quoted: join to these the following. My fervant aiming at a partridge, happens to fhoot a favourite fpaniel croffing the way unfeen. Inflamed with anger, I storm at his rashness, pronounce him guilty, and will liften to no excufe. When paffion fubfides, I become fenfible that the action was merely accidental, and that the man is abfolutely innocent. The nurse overlays my only child, the long-expected heir to a great estate. With difficulty I refrain from putting her to death: "The wretch "has murdered my infant : she ought to "be torn to pieces." When I turn calm, the matter appears to me in a very different light. The poor woman is inconfolable, and can scarce believe that fhe is innocent: fhe bitterly reproaches herself for want of care and concern. But, upon cool -reflection, both she and I become fenfible, that no perfon in found fleep has any felfcommand, and that we cannot be anfwerable for action of which we are not confcious. Thus, upon the whole, we discover, that any impreffion we occafionally have of being able to act in contra

any

diction

diction to motives, is the refult of paffion, not of found judgement.

The reader will obferve, that this fection is copied from Effays on Morality and Natural Religion. The ground-work is the fame: the alterations are only in the superstructure; and the subject is abridged in order to adapt it to its present place. The preceding parts of the sketch were published in the fecond edition of the Principles of Equity. But as law-books have little currency, the publishing the whole in one effay, will not, I hope, be thought improper.

I

APPENDIX.

Upon Chance and Contingency.

Hold it to be an intuitive propofition, That the Deity is the primary cause of all things; that with confummate wifdom he formed the great plan of government, which he carries on by laws fuited to the different natures of animate and in

animate

animate beings; and that these laws, produce a regular chain of caufes and effects in the moral as well as the material world, admitting no events but what are comprehended in the original plan (a). Hence it clearly follows, that chance is excluded out of this world, that nothing can happen by accident, and that no event is arbitrary or contingent. This is the doctrine of the effay quoted; and, in my apprehenfion, well founded. But I cannot subscribe to what follows, That we have

an impreffion of chance and contin

gency, which confequently must be de-' "lufive." I would not willingly admit any delufion in the nature of man, unless it were made evident beyond contradiction; and I now fee clearly, that the impreffion we have of chance and contingency, is not delufive, but perfectly confiftent with the established plan.

The explanation of chance and contingency in the said effay, fhall be given in the author's own words, as a proper text to reafon upon. "In our ordinary train "of thinking, it is certain that all events

(a) See Effays on Morality and Natural Religion, part 1. effay 3.

appear

appear not to us as neceffary. A mul❝titude of events feem to be under our σε power to caufe or to prevent; and we readily make a diftinction betwixt e

vents that are necessary, i. e. that must "be; and events that are contingent, i. e. "that may be, or may not be. This dif "tinction is void of truth: for all things "that fall out either in the material or "moral world, are, as we have seen, a"like neceffary, and alike the result of " fixed laws. Yet, whatever conviction a

philofopher may have of this, the dif "tinction betwixt things neceffary and things contingent, poffeffes his ordinary train of thought, as much as it poffeffes "the most illiterate. We act univerfally

upon that distinction: nay it is in truth "the cause of all the labour, care, and in

dustry, of mankind. I illustrate this "doctrine by an example. Conftant ex

perience hath taught us, that death is 66 a neceffary event. The human frame "is not made to last for ever in its pre"fent condition; and no man thinks of more than a temporary existence upon "this globe. But the particular time of death appears a contingent event.

our death

2

"However

"However certain it be, that the time "and manner of the death of each indi"vidual is determined by a train of pre"ceding caufes, and is no lefs fixed than "the hour of the fun's rifing or fetting;

yet no perfon is affected by this doc"trine. In the care of prolonging life, we are directed by the fuppofed contin→ gency of the time of death, which, to 66 a certain term of years, we confider as depending in a great measure on our"felves, by caution against accidents, due "ufe of food, exercife, &c. Thefe means แ are profecuted with the fame diligence

tt

as if there were in fact no neceffary "train of caufes to fix the period of life. "In fhort, whoever attends to his own

practical ideas, whoever reflects upon "the meaning of the following words "which occur in all languages, of things

t

poffible, contingent, that are in our power

to caufe or prevent; whoever, I fay, re"flects upon these words, will clearly fee,

that they fuggeft certain perceptions or "notions repugnant to the doctrine above "eftablished of univerfal neceffity."

In order to fhow that there is no repugnance, I begin with defining chance and