ed, pain and pleasure, thought and
sensation. These therefore must be the same with self; since the one
cannot survive the other.

Is self the same with substance? If it be, how can that question have
place, concerning the subsistence of self, under a change of substance?
If they be distinct, what is the difference betwixt them? For my part,
I have a notion of neither, when conceived distinct from particular
perceptions.

Philosophers begin to be reconciled to the principle, that we have
no idea of external substance, distinct from the ideas of particular
qualities. This must pave the way for a like principle with regard to
the mind, that we have no notion of it, distinct from the particular
perceptions.

So far I seem to be attended with sufficient evidence. But having thus
loosened all our particular perceptions, when I proceed to explain
the principle of connexion, which binds them together, and makes us
attribute to them a real simplicity and identity; I am sensible, that my
account is very defective, and that nothing but the seeming evidence
of the precedent reasonings coued have induced me to receive it. If
perceptions are distinct existences, they form a whole only by being
connected together. But no connexions among distinct existences are
ever discoverable by human understanding. We only feel a connexion or
determination of the thought, to pass from one object to another. It
follows, therefore, that the thought alone finds personal identity, when
reflecting on the train of past perceptions, that compose a mind, the
ideas of them are felt to be connected together, and naturally introduce
each other. However extraordinary this conclusion may seem, it need not
surprize us. Most philosophers seem inclined to think, that personal
identity arises from consciousness; and consciousness is nothing but a
reflected thought or perception. The present philosophy, therefore,
has so far a promising aspect. But all my hopes vanish, when I come to
explain the principles, that unite our successive perceptions in our
thought or consciousness. I cannot discover any theory, which gives me
satisfaction on this head.

In short there are two principles, which I cannot render consistent; nor
is it in my power to renounce either of them, viz, that all our distinct
perceptions are distinct existences, and that the mind never perceives
any real connexion among distinct existences. Did our perceptions either
inhere in something simple