BOOK I PART III
its operations; so they influence the judgment
after the same manner, and produce belief from
the very same principles. When the imagi-
nation, from any extraordinary ferment of the
blood and spirits, acquires such a vivacity as
disorders all its powers and faculties, there is
no means of distinguishing betwixt truth and
falshood; but every loose fiction or idea, hav-
ing the same influence as the impressions of the
memory, or the conclusions of the judgment,
is received on the same footing, and operates
with equal force on the passions. A present im-
pression and a customary transition are now
no longer necessary to enliven our ideas. Ev-
ery chimera of the brain is as vivid and intense
as any of those inferences, which we formerly
dignifyed with the name of conclusions con-
cerning matters of fact, and sometimes as the
present impressions of the senses.