though no one has so much as suspected, that there was any difficulty in
explaining it. For my part I must own, that I find a considerable
difficulty in the case; and that even when I think I understand the
subject perfectly, I am at a loss for terms to express my meaning. I
conclude, by an induction which seems to me very evident, that an opinion
or belief is nothing but an idea, that is different from a fiction, not
in the nature or the order of its parts, but in the manner of its being
conceived. But when I would explain this manner, I scarce find any word
that fully answers the case, but am obliged to have recourse to every
one's feeling, in order to give him a perfect notion of this operation of
the mind. An idea assented to FEELS different from a fictitious idea,
that the fancy alone presents to us: And this different feeling I
endeavour to explain by calling it a superior force, or vivacity, or
solidity, or FIRMNESS, or steadiness. This variety of terms, which may
seem so unphilosophical, is intended only to express that act of the
mind, which renders realities more present to us than fictions, causes
them to weigh more in the thought, and gives them a superior influence on
the passions and imagination. Provided we agree about the thing, it is
needless to dispute about the terms. The imagination has the command over
all its ideas, and can join, and mix, and vary them in all the ways
possible. It may conceive objects with all the circumstances of place and
time. It may set them, in a, manner, before our eyes in their true
colours, just as they might have existed. But as it is impossible, that
that faculty can ever, of itself, reach belief, it is evident, that belief
consists not in the nature and order of our ideas, but in the manner of
their conception, and in their feeling to the mind. T confess, that it is
impossible to explain perfectly this feeling or manner of conception. We
may make use of words, that express something near it. But its true and
proper name is belief, which is a term that every one sufficiently
understands in common life. And in philosophy we can go no farther, than