represents another, which is different from, but resembling it. In
order, therefore, to accommodate myself to their notions, I shall at
first suppose; that there is only a single existence, which I shall call
indifferently OBJECT or PERCEPTION, according as it shall seem best to
suit my purpose, understanding by both of them what any common man means
by a hat, or shoe, or stone, or any other impression, conveyd to him
by his senses. I shall be sure to give warning, when I return to a more
philosophical way of speaking and thinking.

To enter, therefore, upon the question concerning the source of the
error and deception with regard to identity, when we attribute it to our
resembling perceptions, notwithstanding their interruption; I must here
recal an observation, which I have already provd and explaind [Part II.
Sect. 5.]. Nothing is more apt to make us mistake one idea for another,
than any relation betwixt them, which associates them together in the
imagination, and makes it pass with facility from one to the other.
Of all relations, that of resemblance is in this respect the most
efficacious; and that because it not only causes an association of
ideas, but also of dispositions, and makes us conceive the one idea by
an act or operation of the mind, similar to that by which we conceive
the other. This circumstance I have observd to be of great moment; and
we may establish it for a general rule, that whatever ideas place the
mind in the same disposition or in similar ones, are very apt to be
confounded. The mind readily passes from one to the other, and perceives
not the change without a strict attention, of which, generally speaking,
it is wholly incapable.

In order to apply this general maxim, we must first examine the
disposition of the mind in viewing any object which preserves a perfect
identity, and then find some other object, that is confounded with it,
by causing a similar disposition. When we fix our thought on any object,
and suppose it to continue the same for some time; it is evident we
suppose the change to lie only in the time, and never exert ourselves to
produce any new image or idea of the object. The faculties of the mind
repose themselves in a manner, and take no more exercise, than what is
necessary to continue that idea, of which we were formerly possest, and
which subsists without variation or interruption. The passage from one
moment to another is scarce felt, and distinguishes not itself by a