BOOK I PART III
ion, perfectly inexplicable by human reason,
and it will always be impossible to decide with
certainty, whether they arise immediately from
the object, or are produced by the creative
power of the mind, or are derived from the au-
thor of our being. Nor is such a question any
way material to our present purpose. We may
draw inferences from the coherence of our per-
ceptions, whether they be true or false; whether
they represent nature justly, or be mere illu-
sions of the senses.
When we search for the characteristic, which
distinguishes the memory from the imagina-
tion, we must immediately perceive, that it can-
not lie in the simple ideas it presents to us;
since both these faculties borrow their simple
ideas from the impressions, and can never go
beyond these original perceptions. These fac-