that a contradiction was involved in those words. But, philosophers
having plainly seen that the immediate objects of perception do
not exist without the mind, THEY IN SOME DEGREE CORRECTED the
mistake of the vulgar; but at the same time run into another which
seems no less absurd, to wit, that there are certain objects really
existing without the mind, or having a subsistence distinct from being
perceived, OF WHICH OUR IDEAS ARE ONLY IMAGES or resemblances, imprinted
by those objects on the mind. And this notion of the philosophers owes
its origin to the same cause with the former, namely, their being
conscious that they were not the authors of their own sensations, which
they evidently knew were imprinted from without, and which therefore must
have some cause distinct from the minds on which they are imprinted.

57. BUT WHY THEY SHOULD SUPPOSE THE IDEAS OF SENSE TO BE EXCITED IN US BY
THINGS IN THEIR LIKENESS, and not rather have recourse to SPIRIT which
alone can act, may be accounted for, FIRST, because they were not aware
of the repugnancy there is, (1) as well in supposing things like unto our
ideas existing without, as in (2) attributing to them POWER OR ACTIVITY.
SECONDLY, because the Supreme Spirit which excites those ideas in our
minds, is not marked out and limited to our view by any particular finite
collection of sensible ideas, as human agents are by their size,
complexion, limbs, and motions. And thirdly, because His operations are
regular and uniform. Whenever the course of nature is interrupted by a
miracle, men are ready to own the presence of a superior agent. But, when
we see things go on in the ordinary course they do not excite in us any
reflexion; their order and concatenation, though it be an argument of the
greatest wisdom, power, and goodness in their creator, is yet so constant
and familiar to us that we do not think them the immediate effects of a
Free Spirit; especially since inconsistency and mutability in acting,
though it be an imperfection, is looked on as a mark of freedom.