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"-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">252. For we must not misunderstand ourselves; we are as much automatic as
intellectual; and hence it comes that the instrument by which conviction is
attained is not demonstrated alone. How few things are demonstrated! Proofs
only convince the mind. Custom is the source of our strongest and most
believed proofs. It bends the automaton, which persuades the mind without
its thinking about the matter. Who has demonstrated that there will be a
to-morrow and that we shall die? And what is more believed? It is, then,
custom which persuades us of it; it is custom that makes so many men
Christians; custom that makes them Turks, heathens, artisans, soldiers, etc.
(Faith in baptism is more received among Christians than among Turks.)
Finally, we must have recourse to it when once the mind has seen where the
truth is, in order to quench our thirst, and steep ourselves in that belief,
which escapes us at every hour; for always to have proofs ready is too much
trouble. We must get an easier belief, which is that of custom, which,
without violence, without art, without argument, makes us believe things and
inclines all our powers to this belief, so that our soul falls naturally
into it. It is not enough to believe only by force of conviction, when the
automaton is inclined to believe the contrary. Both our parts must be made
to believe, the mind by