BOOK II PART III
SECTIONV. OF THEEFFECTS OFCUSTOM
But nothing has a greater effect both to en-
crease and diminish our passions, to convert
pleasure into pain, and pain into pleasure, than
custom and repetition. Custom has two origi-
nal effects upon the mind, in bestowing a fa-
cility in the performance of any action or the
conception of any object; and afterwards a ten-
dency or inclination towards it; and from these
we may account for all its other effects, how-
ever extraordinary.
When the soul applies itself to the perfor-
mance of any action, or the conception of any
object, to which it is not accustomed, there is
a certain unpliableness in the faculties, and a
difficulty of the spirit’s moving in their new di-
rection. As this difficulty excites the spirits, it