BOOK II PART III
banishing what is supposed to have been im-
mediately precedent. By this means any dis-
tance in time causes a greater interruption in
the thought than an equal distance in space,
and consequently weakens more considerably
the idea, and consequently the passions; which
depend in a great measure, on the imagination,
according to my system.
There is another phaenomenon of a like na-
ture with the foregoing, viz, the superior effects
of the same distance in futurity above that in
the past. This difference with respect to the will
is easily accounted for. As none of our actions
can alter the past, it is not strange it should
never determine the will. But with respect to
the passions the question is yet entire, and well
worth the examining.
Besides the propensity to a gradual progres-