BOOK I PART III
or of a connexion betwixt them: that this idea
arises from the repetition of their union: that
the repetition neither discovers nor causes any
thing in the objects, but has an influence only
on the mind, by that customary transition it
produces: that this customary transition is,
therefore, the same with the power and neces-
sity; which are consequently qualities of per-
ceptions, not of objects, and are internally felt
by the soul, and not perceivd externally in bod-
ies? There is commonly an astonishment at-
tending every thing extraordinary; and this as-
tonishment changes immediately into the high-
est degree of esteem or contempt, according as
we approve or disapprove of the subject. I am
much afraid, that though the foregoing reason-
ing appears to me the shortest and most de-
cisive imaginable; yet with the generality of
readers the biass of the mind will prevail, and