Phœnomenon of Dreaming. 25

nor Will the effect appear so despicable, if

narrowly examined.—-The only causes

(exclusive of an intelligent cause) that canbe named, are either chance , or the mecha-nism of the Body; since it hath been shewn,that the soul itself is not this cause. But itis scarce to be supposed that any body, un-derstanding the import of those two words,could assert that either of them was the causeof such an appearance. Chance , as hathbeen said, is only a word which we makeuse of, when we are ignorant of the truecause, whether intelligent or mechanical;as when an effect is produced through a trainof causes too long for us to fee the begin-ning of, or where the dependence lyes toodeep for us to find out. But to supposechance a real> efficient cause , or some passiveagent , subsisting by itself, blind and unin-telligent, doing it knows not what, norhow; and yet producing effects, wherethere is design, and an end proposed, andthis end attained by just, natural, and com-pendious means, is to dress up a contradic-tion in our own mind, and to give it a name,It is not only to make the cause act above itspower; but it is to feign a cause, and give