116 HUME IV 



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 operation 

 produces a propensity to renew the same act or operation, with- 

 out being impelled by any reasoning or process of the under- 

 standing, 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 universally acknow- 

 ledged, 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 l 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 



1 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." 



