BOOK I PART III
knowledge of these consequences is conveyed
to him by past experience, which informs him
of such certain conjunctions of causes and ef-
fects. But can we think, that on this occasion
he reflects on any past experience, and calls
to remembrance instances, that he has seen or
heard of, in order to discover the effects of wa-
ter on animal bodies? No surely; this is not the
method, in which he proceeds in his reasoning.
The idea of sinking is so closely connected with
that of water, and the idea of suffocating with
that of sinking, that the mind makes the transi-
tion without the assistance of the memory. The
custom operates before we have time for re-
flection. The objects seem so inseparable, that
we interpose not a moment’s delay in passing
from the one to the other. But as this transition
proceeds from experience, and not from any
primary connexion betwixt the ideas, we must