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Full Idea
We may define a cause to be where .....if the first object had not been, the second never had existed.
Gist of Idea
Cause is where if the first object had not been, the second had not existed
Source
David Hume (Enquiry Conc Human Understanding [1748], 7.2.60)
Book Ref
Hume,David: 'Enquiries Conc. Human Understanding, Morals', ed/tr. Selby-Bigge/Nidditch [OUP 1975], p.77
A Reaction
This is Hume's second definition, cited by Lewis as the ancestor of his counterfactual theory. It feels all wrong to me. 'If there had been no window, there would have been no window-breakage'?