The same idea of causation and power in ourselves which we have when we make changes by our will, we always connect with any thing which by experiment and testimony we find, in given circumstances, to be an invariable antecedent of a given change. Our minds are so made, that whenever we find an _invariable_ antecedent of a given change, we can not help believing that this antecedent _produced_ the change, just as we believe our own will produces changes in our bodies and in things around us. And if any person were to talk and act as if lie did not believe this, be would be regarded as having “lost his reason.” Moreover, whenever men, by frequent experiments, find that a given change is _invariably_ preceded by a certain antecedent, they can not help believing that the antecedent has _power_ to produce this change, and that the thing changed has _no power_ to do otherwise. This idea of _power_ and _want of power_ always exists whenever men find an _invariable_ antecedent to some change. It is by finding what are thus invariably connected as antecedents and consequents that men learn what are _causes_, and what are _effects_, and what are the _powers_ of things around us. Here, then, we have these as principles of common sense believed by all men, viz.: 1. Every change (in matter or mind) has a producing cause as an antecedent. 2. Every invariable antecedent of an invariable sequent is a _producing_ cause, and the thing changed has no power to refrain from that change. 3. A producing cause, in appropriate circumstances, has power to make a given change. Now every man, however unlearned, can judge for himself whether these principles of common sense exist in his own mind, as here set forth. For example, let any person take a magnet and discover, day after day, that when it is placed near a piece of iron it draws it to itself; let him find also, by testimony from others, that this is _invariable_ and fails in not a single instance, and the inevitable result is a belief that the magnet is the _cause_ of the moving of the iron, just as the mind is the cause of the movement of our bodies. So also there is a belief that the magnet, in given circumstances, has _power_ to move the iron, as our will has power to move our body. So also there is a belief that the piece of iron, in the given circumstances, has _no power_ to refrain from being thus attracted. We see, then, that it is a universal fact, that when there is a change of any thing, or any new mode of existence, every sane man believes there is some _producing cause_ of this change. Even the youngest child exhibits this principle as a part of its mental organization. And should a person be found who was destitute of a belief in this truth, so that he should talk and act as if things came into existence and were changing places and forms without any causes, he would be called insane, or a man who had “lost his reason.”