BOOK I PART IV
pose them also exterior to ourselves. The pa-
per, on which I write at present, is beyond my
hand. The table is beyond the paper. The
walls of the chamber beyond the table. And
in casting my eye towards the window, I per-
ceive a great extent of fields and buildings be-
yond my chamber. From all this it may be in-
fered, that no other faculty is required, beside
the senses, to convince us of the external ex-
istence of body. But to prevent this inference,
we need only weigh the three following con-
siderations. First, That, properly speaking, it is
not our body we perceive, when we regard our
limbs and members, but certain impressions,
which enter by the senses; so that the ascribing
a real and corporeal existence to these impres-
sions, or to their objects, is an act of the mind
as difficult to explain, as that which we exam-
ine at present. Secondly, Sounds, and tastes,