in human understandings: After which the reason of the
difference between men and animals will easily be comprehended.

1. When we have lived any time, and have been accustomed to the
uniformity of nature, we acquire a general habit, by which we
always transfer the known to the unknown, and conceive the
latter to resemble the former. By means of this general
habitual principle, we regard even one experiment as the
foundation of reasoning, and expect a similar event with some
degree of certainty, where the experiment has been made
accurately, and free from all foreign circumstances. It is
therefore considered as a matter of great importance to observe
the consequences of things; and as one man may very much
surpass another in attention and memory and observation, this
will make a very great difference in their reasoning.

2. Where there is a complication of causes to produce any
effect, one mind may be much larger than another, and better
able to comprehend the whole system of objects, and to infer
justly their consequences.

3. One man is able to carry on a chain of consequences to a
greater length than another.

4. Few men can think long without running into a confusion of
ideas, and mistaking one for another; and there are various
degrees of this infirmity.

5. The circumstance, on which the effect depends, is frequently
involved in other circumstances, which are foreign and