only a subject full of error, natural and ineffaceable, without grace.
Nothing shows him the truth. Everything deceives him. These two
sources of truth, reason and the senses, besides being both wanting in
sincerity, deceive each other in turn. The senses mislead the Reason
with false appearances, and receive from Reason in their turn the same
trickery which they apply to her; Reason has her revenge. The passions
of the soul trouble the senses, and make false impressions upon
them. They rival each other in falsehood and deception.

    But besides those errors which arise accidentally and through lack
of intelligence, with these heterogeneous faculties...

    84. The imagination enlarges little objects so as to fill our
souls with a fantastic estimate; and, with rash insolence, it
belittles the great to its own measure, as when talking of God.

    85. Things which have most hold on us, as the concealment of our
few possessions, are often a mere nothing. It is a nothing which our
imagination magnifies into a mountain. Another turn of the imagination
would make us discover this without difficulty.

    86. My fancy makes me hate a croaker, and one who pants when
eating. Fancy has great weight. Shall we profit by it? Shall we
yield to this weight because it is natural? No, but by resisting it...

    87. Nae iste magno conatu magnas nugas dixerit.*

    * Terence, Heauton Timorumenos, III. v. 8. "There is one who
will say great foolishness with great effort."

    583.* Quasi quidquam infelicius sit homini cui sua figmenta
dominantur.*(2)

    * Montaigne, Essays, ii.

    *(2) Pliny, ii. "As though there were anyone more unhappy than a
man dominated by his imagination."

    88. Children who are frightened at the face they have blackened
are but children. But how shall one who is so weak in his childhood
become really strong when he grows older? We only change our
fancies. All that is made perfect by progress perishes also by
progress. All that has been weak can never become absolutely strong.
We say in vain, "He has grown, he has changed"; he is also the same.

    89. Custom is our nature. He who is accustomed to the faith
believes in it, can no longer fear hell, and believes in nothing else.
He who is accustomed to believe that the king is terrible... etc.
Who doubts, then, that our soul, being accustomed to see number,
space, motion, believes that and nothing else?

    90. Quod crebro videt non miratur, etiamsi cur fiat nescit; quod
ante non viderit, id si evenerit, ostentum esse censet.*

    * Cicero, De Divinatione ii. 22. "A common happening does not
astonish, even though the cause is unknown; an event such as one has
never seen before passes for a prodigy."

    91. Spongia solis.- When we see the same effect always recur, we
infer a natural necessity in it, as that there will be a tomorrow,
etc. But Nature often deceives us, and does not subject herself to her
own rules.

    92. What are our natural principles but principles of custom? In
children they are those which they have received from the habits of
their fathers, as hunting in animals. A different custom will cause
different natural principles. This is seen in experience; and if there
are some natural principles ineradicable by custom, there are also
some customs opposed to nature, ineradicable by nature or by a
second custom. This depends on disposition.

    93. Parents fear lest the natural love of their children may
fade away. What kind of nature is that which is subject to decay?
Custom is a second nature which destroys the former. But what is
nature? For is custom not natural? I am much afraid that nature is
itself only a first custom, as custom is a second nature.

    94. The nature of man is wholly natural, omne animal.*

    There is nothing he may not make natural; there is nothing natural
he may not lose.

    * Allusion to Gen. 7. 14. Ipsi et omne animal secundus genus suum.
"And every beast after his kind."

    95. Memory, joy, are intuitions; and even mathematical
propositions become intuitions, for education produces natural
intuitions, and natural intuitions are erased by education.

    96. When we are accustomed to use bad reasons for proving
natural effects, we are not willing to receive good reasons when
they are discovered. An example may be given from the circulation of
the blood as a reason why the vein swells below the ligature.

    97. The most important affair in life is the choice of a
calling; chance decides it. Custom makes men masons, soldiers,
slaters. "He is a good slater," says one, and, speaking of soldiers,
remarks, "They are perfect fools." But others affirm, "There is
nothing great but war; the rest of men are good for nothing." We
choose our callings according as we hear this or that praised or