ly knew them possessed of.
These ideas take faster hold of my mind, than the ideas of an inchanted
castle. They are different to the feeling; but there is no distinct or
separate impression attending them. It is the same case when I recollect
the several incidents of a journey, or the events of any history. Every
particular fact is there the object of belief. Its idea is modified
differently from the loose reveries of a castle-builder: But no distinct
impression attends every distinct idea, or conception of matter of fact.
This is the subject of plain experience. If ever this experience can
be disputed on any occasion, it is when the mind has been agitated with
doubts and difficulties; and afterwards, upon taking the object in a new
point of view, or being presented with a new argument, fixes and reposes
itself in one settled conclusion and belief. In this case there is a
feeling distinct and separate from the conception. The passage from
doubt and agitation to tranquility and repose, conveys a satisfaction
and pleasure to the mind. But take any other case. Suppose I see the
legs and thighs of a person in motion, while some interposed object
conceals the rest of his body. Here it is certain, the imagination
spreads out the whole figure. I give him a head and shoulders, and
breast and neck. These members I conceive and believe him to be
possessed of. Nothing can be more evident, than that this whole
operation is performed by the thought or imagination alone. The
transition is immediate. The ideas presently strike us. Their customary
connexion with the present impression, varies them and modifies them in
a certain manner, but produces no act of the mind, distinct from this
peculiarity of conception. Let any one examine his own mind, and he will
evidently find this to be the truth.

Secondly, Whatever may be the case, with regard to this distinct
impression, it must be allowed, that the mind has a firmer hold, or
more steady conception of what it takes to be matter of fact, than of
fictions. Why then look any farther, or multiply suppositions without
necessity?

Thirdly, We can explain the causes of the firm conception, but not those
of any separate impression. And not only so, but the causes of the firm
conception exhaust the whole subject, and nothing is left to produce any
other effect. An inference concerning a matter of fact is nothing but
the idea of an object, that is frequently conjoined, or is associated
with a