[BookX. 



CHAP. XIX. 



OF OPINIONS 



faractox of the Stoics. Explanation. The fenfible Pleafures 

 numerous than tkt fenjible Pains The fa?nt ^ith the i 

 Pkafures and Pains, 



IT was a dogma of the ftoics, that good and evil 

 depend upon opinion Take away the opinion 

 (fay they) and the evil is removed *. This paradox 

 is, perhaps, not wholly incapable of explanation. Cer- 

 tain it is, that if we except the fenfible pleafures and 

 pains, much of our temporal happinefsand miferydoes 

 depend upon opinion j that is, upon an imaginary efti- 

 marion or fear acquired from aflbciations of ideas. 

 What renders a particular walk or apartment agreeable 

 after being for fome time habituated to it ? but that the 

 idea of the place becomes entwined and connected with 

 the pleafures enjoyed in it. What gives value to the 

 lover's keep-fake or the mifer's gold ? not that either 

 are of any ufe to them, but the one is affociated with 

 the pleafure of fympathy, the other with that of con- 

 venience f. The moraliftsj therefore, who afiert that 



* See M. Anton. Med. Arrian Paflim. 



f Darknefs and obfcurity are the only means by which the eye 

 tan be materially deceived in judging of bodies. The fancies, 

 therefore, of apparitions, whenever they arofe, moft probably took 

 their rife from fome mifconception of this kind ; and, indeed, the 

 little probability there is that men could be deceived in the open 

 day, made obfcurity be always chofen as the proper fcene for ter- 

 rors of this kind. Nay, the fear and caution which people muft 

 have in the dark on account of the danger there is of falling or 

 iniurin themfelves ; the opportunity it affords for ambufcades, &c. 



and 



