8 



impression, or because it does not agree with the consent of 

 mankind, with regard to the same object. But if there is not 

 this disposition of mind to belief, against the evidence of a modi- 

 fied sense, then, as in the madman, it is wholly trusted. We can 

 in no instance cite a higher evidence for a truth than that we 

 believe it; yet, often, that which we believed at one time, we find 

 at another to be false. These are two results, produced by two 

 different relations: the evidence for that which we now adopt, is 

 precisely the evidence which we before had for that which is 

 rejected. 



16. The nature then of truth is that it is an effect, the causes 

 of which we can generally assign ; and, like every other effect, it 

 varies as its causes are modified. An external, in relation with 

 our faculties, produces consciousness, or a belief of the existence 

 of such external: change the external, and our consciousness is 

 changed; let the external remain the same, but let, in matters of 

 sense, our senses be modified, or, in matters of opinion, let our 

 understanding be modified, and the same objects or the same 

 arguments produce a different consciousness, or a different belief. 

 The result of this relation is, that things, with the subjects of the 

 relation, are what they appear; the results of investigation are an 

 increase or substitution of matters of belief. The highest objects 

 which we propose, by communicating the results of investigation, 

 are to substitute fixed for wavering belief, and to make individual 

 convictions acknowledged generally, or universally, as truths. If 

 convictions, with regard to some objects,, or propositions, are per- 

 manent, it is because, the objects remaining the same, the faculties 

 with which they are related undergo no change. 



17. Truths or convictions may be variously divided: they 

 may be divided into those which are uniform and constant, those 

 which are liable to change, those which are sensible, those which 

 are inferential, those which belong to the memory, those which 

 are calculated to be popular, those which can be adopted only by 

 a few, those which are entertained only by an individual, &c. 

 My business is not with all these. 



18. Conviction, or belief, is sometimes positive, and some- 

 times mixed with doubt. Positive convictions are the effect of 

 certain evidence so related with our senses or understanding, as 

 to produce unequivocal belief. Belief mixed with doubt is the 

 effect of another kind of evidence, so related with our senses or 

 understandings as to produce only a degree of conviction. Ac- 

 cordingly, evidence is esteemed or depended upon in proportion 

 to the conviction which it is capable of producing. 



19. The evidence of the reality or truth of externals is con- 

 sciousness or conviction ; and when we assert things as true, we 

 affirm only our own consciousness or belief. The evidence which 

 produces conviction, consists of the external objects, which, in 

 matters of sense, are so related with our faculties that their 

 existence is perceived ; or in matters of reflection, of the 



