[CHAPTER IV.]
IDEAS OF CAUSE AND EFFECT.
34. We have the idea of cause; the continual use which we are always making of it shows this. Philosophers do not alone possess it; it is the inheritance of mankind. But what do we understand by cause? All that makes any thing pass from not-being to being, as the effect is all that which passes from not-being to being. I am not now considering whether that which passes from not-being to being is substance or accident, nor the manner in which the cause influences this transition. Hence the definition includes every class of cause, and every species of causality.
35. The idea of cause contains:
I. The idea of being.
II. The relation to that which passes from not-being to being, as of a condition to the conditioned.
The idea of effect contains:
I. The idea of being.
II. The idea of the transition from not-being to being.
III. The relation to the cause, as of the conditioned to the condition.