Philosophical Works, v. 2 (of 4): Including All the Essays, and Exhibiting the More Important Alterations and Corrections in the Successive Editions Published by the AuthorHume, David
PhilosophyPhilosophy
Philosophical Works, v. 2 (of 4): Including All the Essays, and Exhibiting the More Important Alterations and Corrections in the Successive Editions Published by the Author
Hume, David
Knowledge, Theory of; Philosophy, English -- 18th century
But this principle of the connexion of fear with uncertainty I carry
farther, and observe, that any doubt produces that passion, even
though it presents nothing to us on any side but what is good and
desirable. A virgin, on her bridal-night goes to bed full of fears and
apprehensions, though she expects nothing but pleasure of the highest
kind, and what she has long wished for. The newness and greatness of
the event, the confusion of wishes and joys, so embarrass the mind,
that it knows not on what passion to fix itself; from whence arises
a fluttering or unsettledness of the spirits, which being, in some
degree, uneasy, very naturally degenerates into fear.
Thus we still find, that whatever causes any fluctuation or mixture of
passions, with any degree of uneasiness, always produces fear, or at
least a passion so like it, that they are scarcely to be distinguished.
I have here confined myself to the examination of hope and fear in
their most simple and natural situation, without considering all the
variations they may receive from the mixture of different views and
reflections. _Terror, consternation, astonishment, anxiety_, and
other passions of that kind, are nothing but different species and
degrees of fear. 'Tis easy to imagine how a different situation of the
object, or a different turn of thought, may change even the sensation
of a passion; and this may in general account for all the particular
subdivisions of the other affections, as well as of fear. Love may
show itself in the shape of _tenderness, friendship, intimacy, esteem,
good-will_, and in many other appearances; which at the bottom are the
same affections, and arise from the same causes, though with a small
variation, which it is not necessary to give any particular account of.
'Tis for this reason I have all along confined myself to the principal
passion.
The same care of avoiding prolixity is the reason why I waive the
examination of the will and direct passions, as they appear in animals;
since nothing is more evident, than that they are of the same nature,
and excited by the same causes as in human creatures. I leave this to
the reader's own observation, desiring him at the same time to consider
the additional force this bestows on the present system.
SECTION X.
OF CURIOSITY, OR THE LOVE OF TRUTH.
But methinks we have been not a little inattentive to run over so
many different parts of the human mind, and examine so many passions,
without taking once into consideration that love of truth, which was
the first source of all our inquiries. 'Twill therefore be proper,
before we leave this subject, to bestow a few reflections on that
passion, and show its origin in human nature. 'Tis an affection of so
peculiar a kind, that it would have been impossible to have treated of
it under any of those heads, which we have examined, without danger of
obscurity and confusion.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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