A Treatise of Human Nature - Volume 2

Whenever we are motivated by either of these passions, we are affected in a specific way. Depending on whether our idea of ourselves is more or less favorable, we feel one of these two opposite emotions: we are either elated by pride or dejected by humility. Whatever other objects the mind may contemplate, they are always considered in relation to ourselves; otherwise, they would never be able to excite these passions or produce the slightest increase or decrease in them. When the "self" is not part of the consideration, there is no room for either pride or humility.

But although that connected sequence of perceptions, which we call the self, is always the object In this context, "object" refers to the thing the passion is directed toward. of these two passions, it is impossible for the self to be their cause, or to be sufficient on its own to excite them. Because these passions are directly opposite and share the same object, if that object were also the cause, it could never produce any degree of one passion without simultaneously exciting an equal degree of the other. This opposition and conflict would inevitably destroy both emotions. It is impossible for a person to be both proud and humble at the same time; and where one has different reasons for these passions—as frequently happens—the passions either occur alternately, or if they en-