BOOK I PART III
pose necessity and power to lie in the objects
we consider, not in our mind that considers
them; notwithstanding it is not possible for us
to form the most distant idea of that quality,
when it is not taken for the determination of
the mind, to pass from the idea of an object to
that of its usual attendant.
But though this be the only reasonable ac-
count we can give of necessity, the contrary no-
tion if; so riveted in the mind from the prin-
ciples above-mentioned, that I doubt not but
my sentiments will be treated by many as ex-
travagant and ridiculous. What! the efficacy of
causes lie in the determination of the mind! As
if causes did not operate entirely independent
of the mind, and would not continue their op-
eration, even though there was no mind exis-
tent to contemplate them, or reason concerning