A Treatise of Human Nature

(Jeff_L) #1

BOOK I PART IV


of thinking, is apt to continue, even when its
object fails it, and like a galley put in motion
by the oars, carries on its course without any
new impulse. This I have assigned for the rea-
son, why, after considering several loose stan-
dards of equality, and correcting them by each
other, we proceed to imagine so correct and ex-
act a standard of that relation, as is not liable
to the least error or variation. The same prin-
ciple makes us easily entertain this opinion of
the continued existence of body. Objects have
a certain coherence even as they appear to our
senses; but this coherence is much greater and
more uniform, if we suppose the object.


But whatever force we may ascribe to this
principle, I am afraid it is too weak to sup-
port alone so vast an edifice, as is that of the
continued existence of all external bodies; and

Free download pdf