way of thinking, we ought not to receive as reasoning any of the observations we may make concerning _identity_ and the _relations_ of _time_ and _place_; since in none of them the mind can go beyond what is immediately present to the senses, either to discover the real existence or the relations of objects’. [3] [1] P. 372. [Book I, part III., sec. I.] [2] Above, §§ 122 & 123. [3] P. 376. [Book I, part III., sec. II.] Inference a transition from an object perceived or remembered to one that is not so. 284. This passage points out the way which Hume’s doctrine of causation was to follow. That in any case ‘the mind should go beyond a present feeling, either to discover the real existence or the relations of objects’ other than present feelings, was what he could not consistently admit. In the judgment of causation, however, it seems to do so. ‘From the existence or action of one object,’ seen or remembered, it seems to be assured of the existence or action of another, not seen or remembered, on the ground of a necessary connection between the two. [1] It is such assurance that is reckoned to constitute reasoning in the distinctive sense of the term, as different at once from the analysis of complex ideas and the simple succession of ideas--such reasoning as, in the language of a later philosophy, can yield synthetic propositions. What Hume has to do, then, is to explain this ‘assurance’ away by showing that it is not essentially different from that judgment of relation in time and place which, because the related objects are ‘present to the senses along with the relation,’ is called ‘perception rather than reasoning,’ and to which no ‘exercise of the thought’ is necessary, but a ‘mere passive admission of impressions through the organs of sensation.’ Nor, for the assimilation of reasoning to perception, is anything further needed than a reference to the connection of ideas with impressions and of the ideas of imagination with those of memory, as originally stated by Hume. When both of the objects compared are present to the senses, we call the comparison perception; when neither, or only one, is so present, we call it reasoning. But the difference between the object that is present to sense, and that which is not, is merely the difference between impression and idea, which again is merely the difference between the more and the less lively feeling. [2] To feeling, whether with more or with less vivacity, every object, whether of perception or reasoning, must alike be present. Is it then a sufficient account of the matter, according to Hume, to say that when we are conscious of contiguity and succession between objects of which both are impressions we call it perception; but that when both objects are ideas, or one an impression and the other an idea, we call it reasoning? Not quite so. Suppose that I ‘have seen that species of object we call flame, and have afterwards felt that