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The Meaning Of Cause
The meaning of cause here does not carry an anthropomorphic view, that is, the cause does not "wield" certain things to happen. There are three meanings of cause accepted here.
First, logical meaning. The premises of an logical argument are the causes of its conclusion.
Second, analytical meaning. Take a multi-variable mathematical equation as an example, the substituted values of all other variables determine the value of the remaining variable, and we say that the substituted values are the causes to the value of the remaining variable.
Third, statistical meaning, this is also J. S. Mill's method of causal connection. For instance, event A and event B occur in random fashion, but if the occurrence of B is always preceded by the occurrence of A, and the missing of B is always preceded by the missing of A, then we say that A is a cause of B. The above is a case of all or none connection. There is another kind of causal connection called Concomitant Variation, as the principle is the same as the all or none connection, so this connection doesn't need to be explained further.