Page:An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding - Hume (1748).djvu/97

 what otherwise it would have been able to attain? This seems to be the Case with that Belief, which arises from the Relation of Cause and Effect. And if the Case be the same with the other Relations or Principles of Association, we may establish this as a general Law, that takes place in all the Operations of the Mind.

may, therefore, observe, as the first Experiment to our present Purpose, that upon the Appearance of the Picture of an absent Friend, our Idea of him is evidently enliven'd by the Resemblance, and that every Passion, which that Idea occasions, whether of Joy or Sorrow, acquires new Force and Vigour. In producing this Effect, there concur both a Relation and a present Impression. Where the Picture bears him no Resemblance, or at least was not intended for him, it never so much as conveys our Thought to him: And where it is absent, as well as the Person; tho' the Mind may pass from the Thought of the one to that of the other; it feels its Idea to be rather weaken'd than enliven'd by that Transition. We take a Pleasure in viewing the Picture of a Friend, when 'tis set before us; but when 'tis remov'd, rather chuse to consider him directly, than by Reflexion in an image, which is equally distant and obscure.

Ceremonies of the Roman Catholic Religion may be consider'd as Experiments of the same Nature.