82 HUME 



II 



other impressions, in requiring the pre-existence 

 of at least two of the latter. Though devoid of 

 the slightest resemblance to the other impressions, 

 they are, in a manner, generated by them. In 

 fact, we may regard them as a kind of impressions 

 of impressions ; or as the sensations of an inner 

 sense, which takes cognizance of the materials 

 furnished to it by the outer senses. 



Hume failed as completely as his predecessors 

 had done to recognise the elementary character of 

 impressions of relation; and, when he discusses 

 relations, he falls into a chaos of confusion and 

 self-contradiction. 



In the " Treatise," for example, (Book I., iv.) 

 resemblance, contiguity in time and space, and 

 cause and effect, are said to be the "uniting 

 principles among ideas," "the bond of union" 

 or " associating quality by which one idea 

 naturally introduces another." Hume affirms 

 that 



"These qualities produce an association among ideas, and 

 upon the appearance of one idea naturally introduce another." 

 They are "the principles of union or cohesion among our 

 simple ideas, and, in the imagination, supply the place of that 

 inseparable connection by which they are united in our memory. 

 Here is a kind of attraction, which, in the mental world, will be 

 found to have as extraordinary effects as in the natural, and to 

 show itself in as many and as various forms. Its effects are 

 everywhere conspicuous ; but, as to its causes they are mostly 

 unknown, and must be resolved into original qualities of human 

 nature, which I pretend not to explain." (I. p. 29.) 



