NOMENCLATURE OF MENTAL OPERATIONS 



experiences may be compensated by their repeti- 

 tion; and what Hume means by " custom " or 

 " habit " is simply the repetition of experiences. 



" Wherever the repetition of any particular act or opera- 

 tion produces a propensity to renew the same act or opera- 

 tion, without being impelled by any reasoning or process of 

 the understanding, we always say that this propensity is the 

 effect of Custom. By employing that word, we pretend not 

 to have given the ultimate reason of such a propensity. We 

 only point out a principle of human nature which is uni- 

 versally acknowledged, and which is well known by its 

 effects." (IV. p. 52.) 



It has been shown that an expectation is a 

 complex idea which, like a memory, is made up of 

 two constituents. The one is the idea of an 

 object, the other is the idea of a relation of 

 sequence between that object and some present 

 object; and the reasoning which applied to 

 memories applies to expectations. To have an 

 expectation * of a given event, and to believe that 

 it will happen, are only two modes of stating the 

 same fact. Again, just in the same way as we 

 call a memory, put into words, a belief, so we give 

 the same name to an expectation in like clothing. 

 And the fact already cited, that a child before it 

 can speak acts upon its memories, is good evidence 

 that it forms expectations. The infant who 

 knows the meaning neither of " sugar-plum " nor 



* We give no name to faint memories ; but expectations 

 of like character play so large a part in human affairs, that 

 they, together with the associated emotions of pleasure and 

 pain, are distinguished as " hopes " or " fears." 



