Thus all the internal principles, that are necessary in us to produce
either pride or humility, are common to all creatures; and since the
causes, which excite these passions, are likewise the same, we may
justly conclude, that these causes operate after the same manner through
the whole animal creation. My hypothesis Is so simple, and supposes so
little reflection and judgment, that it is applicable to every sensible
creature; which must not only be allowed to be a convincing proof of its
veracity, but, I am confident, will be found an objection to every other
system.
PART II OF LOVE AND HATRED
SECT. I OF THE OBJECT AND CAUSES OF LOVE AND HATRED
It is altogether impossible to give any definition of the passions
of love and hatred; and that because they produce merely a simple
impression, without any mixture or composition. Twould be as unnecessary
to attempt any description of them, drawn from their nature, origin,
causes and objects; and that both because these are the subjects of
our present enquiry, and because these passions of themselves are
sufficiently known from our common feeling and experience. This we
have already observed concerning pride and humility, and here repeat it
concerning love and hatred; and indeed there is so great a resemblance
betwixt these two sets of passions, that we shall be obliged to begin
with a kind of abridgment of our reasonings concerning the former, in
order to explain the latter.
As the immediate object of pride and humility is self or that identical
person, of whose thoughts, actions, and sensations we are intimately
conscious; so the object of love and hatred is some other person, of
whose thoughts, actions, and sensations we are not conscious. This is
sufficiently evident from experience. Our love and hatred are always
directed to some sensible being external to us; and when we talk
of self-love, it is not in a proper sense, nor has the sensation it
produces any thing in common with that tender emotion which is excited
by a friend or mistress. It is the same case with hatred. We may be
mortified by our own faults and follies; but never feel any anger or
hatred except from the injuries of others.
But though the object of love and hatred be always some other person, it
is plain that the object is not, properly speaking, the cause of these
passions, or alone sufficient to excite them. For since love and hatred
are directly contrary in their sensation, and have the same object in
common, if that object were also their cause, it would produce these
opposite passions in an equal degree; and as they must, from the very
first moment, destroy each other, none of them would ever be able to
make its appearance. There must, therefore, be some cause different from
the object.