produce that argument; nor have you any pretence to refuse so equitable a demand. You
cannot say that the argument is abstruse, and may possibly escape your enquiry; since
you confess that it is obvious to the capacity of a mere infant. If you hesitate, therefore, a
moment, or if, after reflection, you produce any intricate or profound argument, you, in a
manner, give up the question, and confess that it is not reasoning which engages us to
suppose the past resembling the future, and to expect similar effects from causes which
are, to appearance, similar. This is the proposition which I intended to enforce in the
present section. If I be right, I pretend not to have made any mighty discovery. And if I
be wrong, I must acknowledge myself to be indeed a very backward scholar; since I
cannot now discover an argument which, it seems, was perfectly familiar to me long
before I was out of my cradle.
