Page:An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding - Hume (1748).djvu/95

 Manner of their Conception, and in their Feeling to the Mind. I confess, that 'tis impossible perfectly to explain this Feeling or Manner of Conception. We may make use of Words, that express something near it. But its true and proper Name, as we observ'd before, is Belief; which is a Term, that every one sufficiently understands in common Life. And in Philosophy, we can go no farther than assert, that Belief is something felt by the Mind, which distinguishes the Ideas of the Judgment from the Fictions of the Imagination. It gives them more Force and Influence; makes them appear of greater Importance; inforces them in the Mind, and renders them the governing Principle of all our Actions. I hear at present, for Instance, a Person's Voice, whom I am acquainted with; and this Sound comes as from the next Room. This Impression of my Senses immediately conveys my Thoughts to the Person, along with all the surrounding Objects. I paint them out to myself as existing at present, with the same Qualities and Relations, that I formerly knew them possest of. These Ideas take faster hold of my Mind, than Ideas of an inchanted Castle. They are very different to the Feeling, and have a much greater Influence of every Kind, either to give Pleasure or Pain, Joy or Sorrow.