I place it either in the constant union and conjunction of like objects, or in the inference of the mind from the one to the other.

Now necessity, in both these senses, has universally, though tacitely, in the schools, in the pulpit, and in common life, been allowed to belong to the will of man, and no one has ever pretended to deny, that we can draw inferences concerning human actions, and that those inferences are founded on the experienced union of like actions with like motives and circumstances.

The only particular in which any one can differ from me, is either, that perhaps he will refuse to call this necessity.

But as long as the meaning is understood, I hope the word can do no harm.

Or that he will maintain there is something else in the operations of matter.