BOOK II PART III
out a manifest absurdity, attribute necessity to
the one, and refuse into the other.
There is no philosopher, whose judgment is
so riveted to this fantastical system of liberty,
as not to acknowledge the force of moral ev-
idence, and both in speculation and practice
proceed upon it, as upon a reasonable founda-
tion. Now moral evidence is nothing but a con-
clusion concerning the actions of men, derived
from the consideration of their motives, temper
and situation. Thus when we see certain char-
acters or figures described upon paper, we infer
that the person, who produced them, would af-
firm such facts, the death of Caesar, the success
of Augustus, the cruelty of Nero; and remem-
bering many other concurrent testimonies we
conclude, that those facts were once really ex-
istant, and that so many men, without any in-