Happy,
if we can unite the boundaries of the different species of philosophy,
by reconciling profound enquiry with clearness, and truth with
novelty! And still more happy, if, reasoning in this easy manner, we
can undermine the foundations of an abstruse philosophy, which seems
to have hitherto served only as a shelter to superstition, and a cover
to absurdity and error!
Sect. II. Of the Origin of Ideas
11. Every one will readily allow, that there is a considerable
difference between the perceptions of the mind, when a man feels the
pain of excessive heat, or the pleasure of moderate warmth, and when
he afterwards recalls to his memory this sensation, or anticipates
it by his imagination. These faculties may mimic or copy the
perceptions of the senses; but they never can entirely reach the force
and vivacity of the original sentiment. The utmost we say of them,
even when they operate with greatest vigour, is, that they represent
their object in so lively a manner, that we could almost say we feel
or see it: But, except the mind be disordered by disease or madness,
they never can arrive at such a pitch of vivacity, as to render
these perceptions altogether undistinguishable. All the colours of
poetry, however splendid, can never paint natural objects in such a
manner as to make the description be taken for a real landskip.
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