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ESSAY III.
Of the Connexion of Ideas.
'TIS evident, that there is a Principle of Connexion betwixt the different Thoughts or Ideas of the Mind, and that in their Appearance to the Memory or Imagination, they introduce each other with a certain Degree of Method and Regularity. In our more serious Thinking or Discourse, this is so observable, that any particular Thought, which breaks in upon this regular Tract or Chain of Ideas, is immediately remark'd and rejected. And even in our wildest and most wandering Reveries, nay in our very Dreams, we shall find, if we reflect, that the Imagination run not altogether at Adventures, but that there was still a Connexion upheld among the different Ideas, which succeeded each other. Were the loosest and freest Conversation to be transcrib'd, there would immediately be observ'd something, which connected it in all its Transitions. Or where this is wanting, the Person, who broke the Thread of Discourse, mightstill
