BOOK I PART IV
pleasures, our passions and affections, which
we never suppose to have any existence be-
yond our perception, operate with greater vi-
olence, and are equally involuntary, as the im-
pressions of figure and extension, colour and
sound, which we suppose to be permanent be-
ings. The heat of a fire, when moderate, is sup-
posed to exist in the fire; but the pain, which
it causes upon a near approach, is not taken to
have any being, except in the perception.
These vulgar opinions, then, being rejected,
we must search for some other hypothesis, by
which we may discover those peculiar qualities
in our impressions, which makes us attribute to
them a distinct and continued existence.
After a little examination, we shall find, that
all those objects, to which we attribute a con-
tinued existence, have a peculiar constancy,