作者：Hume
译者：我
Now since nothing is ever present to the mind but perceptions,
至此，对于心灵，除知觉外没有什么存在。
I never catch myself at any time without a perception and can never observe anything but the perception. But, setting aside some metaphysicians of this kind, I may venture to affirm of the rest of mankind, that they are nothing but a bundle or collection of different perceptions, which succeed each other with an inconceivable rapidity, and are in a perpetual flux and movement.
任何时候我都不能没有知觉地捕捉到自己（的心灵）以及观察一切。但一些形而上学家的类别则在相反一面，我要进一步地揭示其他人，他们是不存在的，——除了一束或一团不同的感觉，它们在一种不能设想的快速中接续彼此，是在永久地流转与运动。
As to causation; we may observe, that the true idea of the human mind, is to consider it as a system of different perceptions or different existences, which are link'd together by the relation of cause and effect, and mutually produce, destroy, influence, and modify each other. Our impressions give rise to their correspondent ideas; said these ideas in their turn produce other impressions.
目前，我们可能对人类心灵的真实的观念有所发明，就是说，它像是一个系统，由一些不同的感知或存在连结在一起，随着因与果的关系及相互的生成、毁灭、影响与彼此修正。我们的印象升起了这些对应的观念，这就是说，观念在自己那里造就了其余的印象。