Page:Four Dissertations - David Hume (1757).djvu/191



1. WE shall here enumerate some of those circumstances, which render a passion calm or violent, which heighten or diminish any emotion.

is a property in human nature, that any emotion, which attends a passion, is easily converted into it; tho' in their natures they be originally different from, and even contrary to each other. It is true, in order to cause a perfect union amongst passions, and make one produce the other, there is always required a double relation, according to the theory above delivered. But when two passions are already produced by their separate causes, and are both present in the mind, they readily mingle and unite; tho' they have but one relation, and sometimes without any. The predominant passion swallows up the inferior, and converts it into itself. The spirits, when once excited, easily receive a change in their direction; and it is natural to imagine, that this change will come from the prevailing affection. The con-