A Treatise of Human Nature

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BOOK I PART III


All those opinions and notions of things, to
which we have been accustomed from our in-
fancy, take such deep root, that it is impossible
for us, by all the powers of reason and experi-
ence, to eradicate them; and this habit not only
approaches in its influence, but even on many
occasions prevails over that which a-rises from
the constant and inseparable union of causes
and effects. Here we most not be contented
with saying, that the vividness of the idea pro-
duces the belief: We must maintain that they
are individually the same. The frequent repe-
tition of any idea infixes it in the imagination;
but coued never possibly of itself produce be-
lief, if that act of the mind was, by the origi-
nal constitution of our natures, annexed only
to a reasoning and comparison of ideas. Cus-
tom may lead us into some false comparison of
ideas. This is the utmost effect we can conceive

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