BOOK II PART III
evil, which influences the imagination in the
same manner as the certainty of it would do;
but being encountered by the reflection on our
security, is immediately retracted, and causes
the same kind of passion, as when from a con-
trariety of chances contrary passions are pro-
duced.
Evils, that are certain, have sometimes the
same effect in producing fear, as the possible or
impossible. Thus a man in a strong prison well-
guarded, without the least means of escape,
trembles at the thought of the rack, to which he
is sentenced. This happens only when the cer-
tain evil is terrible and confounding; in which
case the mind continually rejects it with hor-
ror, while it continually presses in upon the
thought. The evil is there flxed and established,
but the mind cannot endure to fix upon it; from