A Treatise of Human Nature

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BOOK I PART II


hastily conclude, that these are inferior to any
idea of our imagination or impression of our
senses. This however is certain, that we can
form ideas, which shall be no greater than the
smallest atom of the animal spirits of an insect a
thousand times less than a mite: And we ought
rather to conclude, that the difficulty lies in en-
larging our conceptions so much as to form a
just notion of a mite, or even of an insect a thou-
sand times less than a mite. For in order to form
a just notion of these animals, we must have a
distinct idea representing every part of them,
which, according to the system of infinite divis-
ibility, is utterly impossible, and, recording to
that of indivisible parts or atoms, is extremely
difficult, by reason of the vast number and mul-
tiplicity of these parts.

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