BOOK I PART IV
the different points of view, in which we sur-
vey the object, and from the nearness or re-
moteness of those instants of time, which we
compare together. When we gradually follow
an object in its successive changes, the smooth
progress of the thought makes us ascribe an
identity to the succession; because it is by a
similar act of the mind we consider an un-
changeable object. When we compare its situa-
tion after a considerable change the progress of
the thought is broke; and consequently we are
presented with the idea of diversity: In order to
reconcile which contradictions the imagination
is apt to feign something unknown and invisi-
ble, which it supposes to continue the same un-
der all these variations; and this unintelligible
something it calls a substance, or original and
first matter.