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ed, has the fame effect with hope, to magnify every circumftance that tends to conviction. Shakespeare, who shows more knowledge of human nature than any of our philofophers, hath in his Cymbeline reprefented this bias of the mind; for he makes the perfon who alone was affected with the bad news, yield to evidence that did not convince any of his companions. And Othello + is convinced of his wife's infidelity from circumftances too flight to move any perfon lefs interested.

If the news intereft us in fo low a degree as to give place to reason, the effect will not be altogether the fame : judging of the probability or improbability of the ftory, the mind fettles in a rational conviction either that it is true or not. But, even in that cafe, the mind is not allowed to reft in that degree of conviction which is produced by rational evidence: if the news be in any degree favourable, our belief is raised by hope to an improper height; and if unfavourable, by fear.

This obfervation holds equally with refpect to future events: if a future event be either much wifhed or dreaded, the mind never fails to augment the probability beyond truth.

That eafinefs of belief with refpect to wonders and prodigies, even the moft abfurd and ridiculous, is a ftrange phenomenon; because nothing L 2

can

* A&t 2. Sc. 6.

+ Act. 3. Sc. 8.

can be more evident than the following propofition, that the more fingular any event is, the more evidence is required to produce belief: a familiar event daily occurring, being in itself extremely probable, finds ready credit, and therefore is vouched by the flighteft evidence; but to overcome the improbability of a strange and rare event, contrary to the courfe of nature, the very strongest evidence is required. It is certain, however, that wonders and prodigies are fwallowed by the vulgar, upon evidence that would not be fufficient to afcertain the moft familiar Occurrence. It has been reckoned difficult to explain that irregular bias of mind; but we are now made acquainted with the influence of pasfion upon opinion and belief: a ftory of ghofts or fairies, told with an air of gravity and truth, raiseth an emotion of wonder, and perhaps of dread; and thefe emotions impofing upon a weak mind, imprefs upon it a thorough conviction contrary to reason.

Opinion and belief are influenced by propenfity as well as by paffion. An innate propensity is all we have to convince us, that the operations of nature are uniform: influenced by that propenfity, we often rafhly think, that good or bad weather will never have an end; and in natural philofophy, writers, influenced by the fame propenfity, stretch commonly their analogical reafonings beyond just bounds.

Opinion

Opinion and belief are influenced by affection. The noted ftory of a fine lady and a curate viewing the moon through a telescope, is a pleasant illuftration: I perceive, fays the lady, two fhadows inclining to each other; they are certainly two happy lovers: Not at all, replies the curate, they are two fteeples of a cathedral.

as well as by propenfity.

APPENDIX TO PART V.

Methods that Nature hath afforded for computing Time and Space.

TH

HIS fubject is introduced, because it affords feveral curious examples of the influence of paffion to bias the mind in its conceptions and opinions; a leffon that cannot be too frequently inculcated, as there is not perhaps another bias in human nature that hath an influence fo univerfal to make us wander from truth as well as from juftice.

I begin with time; and the queftion is, What was the measure of time before artificial measures were invented; and what is the measure at prefent when these are not at hand? I speak not of months and days, which are computed by the moon and fun; but of hours, or in general of the time that paffes between any two occurrences

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when there is not access to the fun. The only natural measure is the fucceffion of our thoughts; for we always judge the time to be long or short, in proportion to the number of perceptions and ideas that have paffed during that interval. This measure is indeed far from being accurate; becaufe in a quick and in a flow fucceffion, it must evidently produce different computations of the fame time but, however inaccurate, it is the only measure by which we naturally calculate time; and that meafure is applied on all occafions, without regard to any cafual variation in the rate of fucceffion.

That measure would however be tolerable, did it labour under no other imperfection befide that mentioned: but in many inftances it is much more fallacious; in order to explain which diftinctly, an analyfis will be neceffary. Time is computed at two different periods; one while it is paffing, another after it is paft: these computations fhall be confidered feparately, with the errors to which each of them is liable. Beginning with computation of time while it is paffing, it is a common and trite obfervation, That to lovers abfence appears immeasurably long, every minute an hour, and every day a year the fame computation is made in every cafe where we long for a diftant event; as where one is in expectation of good news, or where a profligate heir watches for the death of an old ich mifer. Oppofite to thefe are inftances not

fewer

fewer in number: to a criminal the interval between sentence and execution appears wofully fhort and the fame holds in every cafe where one dreads an approaching event; of which even a fchool-boy can bear witness: the hour allowed him for play, moves, in his apprehenfion, with a very swift pace; before he is thoroughly engaged, the hour is gone. A computation founded on the number of ideas, will never produce estimates fo regularly oppofite to each other; for our wishes do not produce a flow fucceffion of ideas, nor our fears a quick fucceffion. What then moves nature, in the cafes mentioned, to defert her ordinary measure for one very different? I know not that this queftion ever has been refolved; the false estimates I have fuggefted being fo common and familiar, that no writer has thought of their caufe. And, indeed, to enter upon this matter without preparation, might occafion fome difficulty to encounter which we luckily are prepared, by what is faid upon the power of paffion to bias the mind in its perceptions and opinions. Among the circumftances that terrify a condemned criminal, the short time he has to live is one; which time, by the influence of terror, is made to appear still shorter than it is in reality. In the fame manner, among the diftreffes of an abfent lover, the time of feparation is a capital circumftance, which for that reafon is greatly magnified by his anxiety and impatience he imagines

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