BOOK III PART II
to be in our possession, if it be impossible for
him to escape. But what do we mean by impos-
sible? How do we separate this impossibility
from an improbability? And how distinguish
that exactly from a probability? Mark the pre-
cise limits of the one and the other, and shew
the standard, by which we may decide all dis-
putes that may arise, and, as we find by expe-
rience, frequently do arise upon this subject.^17
(^17) If we seek a solution of these difficulties in reason
and public interest, we never shall find satisfaction; and
If we look for it in the imagination, it is evident, that the
qualities, which operate upon that faculty, run so insen-
sibly and gradually into each other, that it is impossible
to give them any precise bounds or termination. The dif-
ficulties on this head must encrease, when we consider,
that our judgment alters very sensibly, according to the
subject, and that the same power and proximity will be
deemed possession in one case, which is not esteemed
such in another. A person, who has hunted a hare to