Context

The author has distinguished between the object and causes of pride and humility (Section 2). He has then argued that the property that directs the passions to the self is both original and natural, while the property of the causes of the passions is natural but not original (Section 3). In the present section, he advances his explanation of how the cause and the object are related.

Background

The author’s account at this point is original.

The Treatise

1. The author sums up the results of the previous sections, in the form of “two truths” which have been established “without any obstacle or difficulty.”

• That a variety of causes excite the passions of pride and humility from natural principles,
• That it is not the case that each different cause is adapted to the relevant passion by its own unique principle.

2. The way to accomplish this task is to look to “certain properties of human nature,” that greatly influence both the understanding and the passions, but which have been overlooked by philosophers. The first of these is the association of ideas, which introduces a measure of regularity into the production of ideas, insofar as they stand in relations of resemblance, contiguity and cause and effect. “When one idea is present to the imagination, any other, united by these relations, naturally follows it, and enters with more facility by means of that introduction.” [See Book I, Part I, Section 4.]

3. The second explanatory property is a counterpart of the first, applying to impressions as opposed to ideas. There is “a like association of impressions. All resembling impressions are connected together, and no sooner one arises than the rest immediately follow.” For example, grief and disappointment give rise to anger, which gives rise to envy, which gives rise to malice, which gives rise to grief, completing a circle of successive impressions. A similar association can be found for the positive emotions: joy leads to love, which leads to generosity, then to pity, to courage, and finally to pride and other emotions. In fact, it is hard to contain any passion within its own bounds, rather than have it spill over into other passions. Human nature is changeable, “and to what can it so naturally change, as to affections or emotions, which are suitable to the temper, and agree with that set of passions, which then prevail?” The “remarkable” difference in associative principles for impressions versus those for ideas is that the associations of the passions require only resemblance, and not contiguity or cause and effect.

4. A third explanatory property of human nature is that the association which “forwards the ideas” works hand-in-hand with the association which operates on the passions. The transition from one to another [idea to idea and passion to passion] is facilitated when the ideas and the passions are directed at the same object. Someone hurt by another will be led to other passions by things associated with that person. There is a “double impulse” bestowed upon the mind by the concurrence of the idea and the impression (passion). “The new passion, therefore, must arise with so much greater violence, and the transition to it must be render’d so much more easy and natural.” [Here is an example that anticipates what follows. My idea of my house easily passes into the idea of myself, due to the causal relation of ownership. Moreover, the impression of pleasure that I get from my idea of my house easily passes into an impression of pleasure that I get when I contemplate myself, due to the resemblance between the two. Thus, the two easy transitions make the connection between the impression of the house and the pleasure in myself (pride) easier and more forceful than they would have been otherwise.]

5. An example of the mutual operation of the two principles of association is found in the words of a writer [Joseph Addison], who has noted how passions can be elevated in various contexts: e.g., a fragrance in a beautiful natural setting can heighten the appreciation of the colors that appear there. “In this phænomenon we may remark the association both of impressions and ideas, as well as the mutual assistance they lend each other.”

Dissertation II: Of the Passions

The account given in the Treatise is reproduced almost verbatim in the Dissertation

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