BOOK I PART III
is evident An experiment in the past proves at
least a possibility for the future.
Secondly, The component parts of this pos-
sibility and probability are of the same nature,
and differ in number only, but not in kind. It
has been observed, that all single chances are
entirely equal, and that the only circumstance,
which can give any event, that is contingent, a
superiority over another is a superior number
of chances. In like manner, as the uncertainty
of causes is discovery by experience, which
presents us with a view of contrary events, it
is plain, that when we transfer the past to the
future, the known to the unknown, every past
experiment has the same weight, and that it
is only a superior number of them, which can
throw the ballance on any side. The possibility,
therefore, which enters into every reasoning of