A Treatise of Human Nature - Volume 2

the passion by partaking of some general quality that naturally operates on the mind; is itself the object of an original principle, which until then lay concealed in the soul, and is only by accident at last brought to light. Thus the first craftsman who invented a fine escritoire An ornamental writing desk. produced pride in the person who became possessed of it, by principles different from those which made him proud of handsome chairs and tables. As this appears evidently ridiculous, we must conclude that each cause of pride and humility is not adapted to the passions by a distinct original quality; but that there are one or more circumstances common to all of them, on which their effectiveness depends.

BESIDES, we find in the course of nature that though the effects are many, the principles from which they arise are commonly but few and simple, and that it is the sign of an unskillful naturalist to have recourse to a different quality in order to explain every different operation. How much more must this be true with regard to the human mind, which—being such a limited subject—may justly be thought incapable of containing such a monstrous heap of principles as would be necessary to excite the passions of pride and humility, if each distinct