BOOK I PART IV
to lie only in the time, and never exert our-
selves to produce any new image or idea of the
object. The faculties of the mind repose them-
selves in a manner, and take no more exercise,
than what is necessary to continue that idea,
of which we were formerly possest, and which
subsists without variation or interruption. The
passage from one moment to another is scarce
felt, and distinguishes not itself by a different
perception or idea, which may require a differ-
ent direction of the spirits, in order to its con-
ception.
Now what other objects, beside identical
ones, are capable of placing the mind in the
same disposition, when it considers them, and
of causing the same uninterrupted passage of
the imagination from one idea to another? This
question is of the last importance. For if we can