nantur._[55]
(Plin.)

88

Children who are frightened at the face they have blackened are but
children. But how shall one who is so weak in his childhood become
really strong when he grows older? We only change our fancies. All that
is made perfect by progress perishes also by progress. All that has been
weak can never become absolutely strong. We say in vain, "He has grown,
he has changed"; he is also the same.

89

Custom is our nature. He who is accustomed to the faith believes in it,
can no longer fear hell, and believes in nothing else. He who is
accustomed to believe that the king is terrible ... etc. Who doubts then
that our soul, being accustomed to see number, space, motion, believes
that and nothing else?

90

_Quod crebro videt non miratur, etiamsi cur fiat nescit; quod ante non
viderit, id si evenerit, ostentum esse censet._[56] (Cic. 583.)

91

_Spongia solis._[57]--When we see the same effect always recur, we infer
a natural necessity in it, as that there will be a to-morrow, etc. But
nature often deceives us, and does not subject herself to her own rules.

92

What are our natural principles but principles of custom? In children
they are those which they have received from the habits of their
fathers, as hunting in animals. A different custom will cause different
natural principles. This is seen in experience; and if there are some
natural principles ineradicable by custom, there are also some customs
opposed to nature, ineradicable by nature, or by a second custom. This
depends on disposition.

93

Parents fear lest the natural love of their children may fade away. What
kind of nature is that which is subject to decay? Custom is a second
nature which destroys the former.[58] But what is nature? For is custom
not natural? I am much afraid that nature is itself only a first custom,
as custom is a second nature.

94

The nature of man is wholly natural, _omne animal_.[59]

There is nothing he may not make natural; there is nothing natural he
may not lose.

95

Memory, joy, are intuitions; and even mathematical propositions become
intuitions, for education produces natural intuitions, and natural
intuitions are erased by education.

96

When we are accustomed to use bad reasons for proving natural effects,
we are not willing to receive good reasons when they are discovered. An
example may be given from the circulation of the blood as a reason why
the vein swell