BOOK I PART III
watch than to say, that commonly it does not
go right: But an artizan easily perceives, that
the same force in the spring or pendulum has
always the same influence on the wheels; but
fails of its usual effect, perhaps by reason of a
grain of dust, which puts a stop to the whole
movement. From the observation of several
parallel instances, philosophers form a maxim,
that the connexion betwixt all causes and ef-
fects is equally necessary, and that its seeming
uncertainty in some instances proceeds from
the secret opposition of contrary causes.
But however philosophers and the vulgar
may differ in their explication of the contrariety
of events, their inferences from it are always of
the same kind, and founded on the same prin-
ciples. A contrariety of events in the past may
give us a kind of hesitating belief for the future