A Treatise of Human Nature

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BOOK I PART II


second objection, derived from the conjunction
of the ideas of rest and annihilation. When ev-
ery thing is annihilated in the chamber, and the
walls continue immoveable, the chamber must
be conceived much in the same manner as at
present, when the air that fills it, is not an ob-
ject of the senses. This annihilation leaves to
the eye, that fictitious distance, which is dis-
covered by the different parts of the organ, that
are affected, and by the degrees of light and
shade;–and to the feeling, that which consists
in a sensation of motion in the hand, or other
member of the body. In vain should we. search
any farther. On whichever side we turn this
subject, we shall find that these are the only im-
pressions such an object can produce after the
supposed annihilation; and it has already been
remarked, that impressions can give rise to no
ideas, but to such as resemble them.

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