f blood
depend upon cause and effect, and are esteemed near or remote, according
to the number of connecting causes interposed betwixt the persons.

Of the three relations above-mentioned this of causation is the most
extensive. Two objects may be considered as placed in this relation,
as well when one is the cause of any of the actions or motions of the
other, as when the former is the cause of the existence of the
latter. For as that action or motion is nothing but the object itself,
considered in a certain light, and as the object continues the same
in all its different situations, it is easy to imagine how such
an influence of objects upon one another may connect them in the
imagination.

We may carry this farther, and remark, not only that two objects are
connected by the relation of cause and effect, when the one produces
a motion or any action in the other, but also when it has a power
of producing it. And this we may observe to be the source of all the
relation, of interest and duty, by which men influence each other in
society, and are placed in the ties of government and subordination. A
master is such-a-one as by his situation, arising either from force or
agreement, has a power of directing in certain particulars the actions
of another, whom we call servant. A judge is one, who in all disputed
cases can fix by his opinion the possession or property of any thing
betwixt any members of the society. When a person is possessed of any
power, there is no more required to convert it into action, but the
exertion of the will; and that in every case is considered as possible,
and in many as probable; especially in the case of authority, where the
obedience of the subject is a pleasure and advantage to the superior.

These are therefore the principles of union or cohesion among our simple
ideas, and in the imagination supply the place of that inseparable
connexion, by which they are united in our memory. Here is a kind
of ATTRACTION, which in the mental world will be found to have as
extraordinary effects as in the natural, and to shew itself in as many
and as various forms. Its effects are every where conspicuous; but as to
its causes, they are mostly unknown, and must be resolved into original
qualities of human nature, which I pretend not to explain. Nothing is
more requisite for a true philosopher, than to restrain the intemperate
desire of searching into causes, and having established any doctrine
upon a suffi