3. Being that which makes us presume things to be true, before we know them to be so.
Probability is likeliness to
be true, the very notation of the word signifying such a proposition, for which there be arguments or proofs to
make it pass, or be received for true. The entertainment the mind gives this sort of propositions is called belief,
assent, or opinion, which is the admitting or receiving any proposition for true, upon arguments or proofs that are
found to persuade us to receive it as true, without certain knowledge that it is so. And herein lies the difference
between probability and certainty, faith, and knowledge, that in all the parts of knowledge there is intuition; each
immediate idea, each step has its visible and certain connexion: in belief, not so. That which makes me believe, is
something extraneous to the thing I believe; something not evidently joined on both sides to, and so not
manifestly showing the agreement or disagreement of those ideas that are under consideration.
