The ideas belonging to two of the three groups enumerated: namely,
memories and expectations, present some features, of particular
interest. And first, with respect to memories.
In Hume's words, all simple ideas are copies of simple impressions. The
idea of a single sensation is a faint, but accurate, image of that
sensation; the idea of a relation is a reproduction of the feeling of
co-existence, of succession, or of similarity. But, when complex
impressions or complex ideas are reproduced as memories, it is probable
that the copies never give all the details of the originals with perfect
accuracy, and it is certain that they rarely do so. No one possesses a
memory so good, that if he has only once observed a natural object, a
second inspection does not show him something that he has forgotten.
Almost all, if not all, our memories are therefore sketches, rather than
portraits, of the originals--the salient features are obvious, while the
subordinate characters are obscure or unrepresented.
Now, when several complex impressions which are more or less different
from one another--let us say that out of ten impressions in each, six
are the same in all, and four are different from all the rest--are
successively presented to the mind, it is easy to see what must be the
nature of the result. The repetition of the six similar impressions will
strengthen the six corresponding elements of the complex idea, which
will therefore acquire greater vividness; while the four differing
impressions of each will not only acquire no greater strength than they
had at first, but, in accordance with the law of association, they will
all tend to appear at once, and will thus neutralise one another.
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