CHAPTER III 



THE ORIGIN OF THE IMPRESSIONS 



ADMITTING that the sensations, the feelings of 

 pleasure and pain, and those of relation, are the 

 primary irresolvable states of consciousness, two 

 further lines of investigation present themselves. 

 The one leads us to seek the origin of these 

 " impressions : " the other, to inquire into the 

 nature of the steps by which they become 

 metamorphosed into those compound states of 

 consciousness, which so largely enter into our 

 ordinary trains of thought. 



With respect to the origin of impressions of sen- 

 sation, Hume is not quite consistent with himself. 

 In one place (I. p. 117) he says, that it is im- 

 possible to decide " whether they arise immediately 

 from the object, or are produced by the creative 

 power of the mind, or are derived from the Author 

 of our being," thereby implying that realism and 

 idealism are equally probable hypotheses. But, 

 in fact, after the demonstration by Descartes, that 



