Chap. 4.] Succsflfoc Affociatwn. 43 t 



nous. But it is evident that impreffions remain fome 

 moments on our fenfes, and die gradually away * ; if 

 another impreffion therefore is made while the former 

 remains, they will be aiTcx iated, and the one (hall recal 

 the other to remembrance ; the alTocintion being 

 weaker or ftronger in proportion to the ftate of tha 

 idea or impreffion with refpect to its vividnefs. An 

 idea may in the fame manner be aflbciated with an irn- 

 preffion or fenfation, or two ideas may be afibciated 

 together, and this kind of affectation from contiguity 

 of time may be termed fucceffive. Thofe com- 

 plex ideas which are formed from fynchrorious impref- 

 fions, are more vivid and diftinct than thofe formed 

 from fucceffive ones. 



Propofitions founded upon fynchronous knpreffions, 

 are little elfe than complex ideas of fenfation ; as in 

 the propofition " the dog barks," the idea of die 

 thing is as much aflbciated .with the action as with any 

 of its qualities : and here is no room for difienr, Unleli 

 we could find that our fenfes had deceived us. 



Propofitions founded on fucceffive imprefiions, are 

 much more liable to error} yet of thefe confiftsby 

 far the more valuable portion of our knowledge. !{: 

 is remarkable, how in forming thefe proportions, .fre- 

 quent experience leads us to drop the intermediate 

 ideas, and connect the two extremes of the propofition, 

 calling it felf-evident, as if it was really the effect of 

 fynchronous impreffions. < We may obferve (fay* 

 Mr. Locke f.) that the ideas we receive from fenfa- 

 tion, areoften in grown people altered by the judgment 

 without our taking notice of it. Thus a globe of any 

 uniform colour, as of gold or jet, being fet before our 

 eyes, the idea thereby imprinted, is of a flat circle va*- 



* See Sir Ifaac Newton's Optics, and b, ix, c. 41. 



t P.. 2, c. g. 



rioufly 



