There is properly no _simplicity_ in it at one time, nor _identity_
in different, whatever natural propension we may have to imagine
that simplicity and identity. The comparison of the theatre must
not mislead us. They are the successive perceptions only that
constitute the mind; nor have we the most distant notion of the
place where these scenes are represented, or of the materials of
which it is composed.
"What then gives so great a propension to ascribe an identity to
these successive perceptions, and to suppose ourselves possessed of
an invariable and uninterrupted existence through the whole course
of our lives? In order to answer this question, we must distinguish
between personal identity as it regards our thought and
imagination, and as it regards our passions, or the concern we take
in ourselves. The first is our present subject; and to explain it
perfectly we must take the matter pretty deep, and account for that
identity which we attribute to plants and animals; there being a
great analogy betwixt it and the identity of a self or
person."--(I. pp. 321, 322.)
Perfect identity is exhibited by an object which remains unchanged
throughout a certain time; perfect diversity is seen in two or more
objects which are separated by intervals of space and periods of time.
But, in both these cases, there is no sharp line of demarcation between
identity and diversity, and it is impossible to say when an object
ceases to be one and becomes two.
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