A Treatise of Human Nature

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BOOK I PART IV


or tangible, that has parts disposed after such
a manner, as to convey that idea. When we
diminish or encrease a relish, it is not after
the same manner that we diminish or encrease
any visible object; and when several sounds
strike our hearing at once, custom and reflec-
tion alone make us form an idea of the degrees
of the distance and contiguity of those bodies,
from which they are derived. Whatever marks
the place of its existence either must be ex-
tended, or must be a mathematical point, with-
out parts or composition. What is extended
must have a particular figure, as square, round,
triangular; none of which will agree to a desire,
or indeed to any impression or idea, except
to these two senses above-mentioned. Neither
ought a desire, though indivisible, to be consid-
ered as a mathematical point. For in that case
it would be possible, by the addition of oth-

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