BOOK II PART III
of objects to their real existence. It is certain,
that the former species of truth, is not desired
merely as truth, and that it is not the justness
of our conclusions, which alone gives the plea-
sure. For these conclusions are equally just,
when we discover the equality of two bodies
by a pair of compasses, as when we learn it by
a mathematical demonstration; and though in
the one case the proofs be demonstrative, and
in the other only sensible, yet generally speak-
ing, the mind acquiesces with equal assurance
in the one as in the other. And in an arithmeti-
cal operation, where both the truth and the as-
surance are of the same nature, as in the most
profound algebraical problem, the pleasure is
very inconsiderable, if rather it does not degen-
erate into pain: Which is an evident proof, that
the satisfaction, which we sometimes receive
from the discovery of truth, proceeds not from