BOOK I PART IV
some avocation, and lively impression of my
senses, which obliterate all these chimeras. I
dine, I play a game of backgammon, I converse,
and am merry with my friends; and when after
three or four hours’ amusement, I would return
to these speculations, they appear so cold, and
strained, and ridiculous, that I cannot find in
my heart to enter into them any farther.
Here then I find myself absolutely and nec-
essarily determined to live, and talk, and act
like other people in the common affairs of life.
But notwithstanding that my natural propen-
sity, and the course of my animal spirits and
passions reduce me to this indolent belief in the
general maxims of the world, I still feel such
remains of my former disposition, that I am
ready to throw all my books and papers into
the fire, and resolve never more to renounce