A Treatise of Human Nature

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BOOK II PART III


and advantages, natural or acquired; observes
the disposition and contrivance of the bastions,
ramparts, mines, and other military works; it
is plain, that in proportion as all these are fit-
ted to attain their ends he will receive a suit-
able pleasure and satisfaction. This pleasure,
as it arises from the utility, not the form of the
objects, can be no other than a sympathy with
the inhabitants, for whose security all this art is
employed; though it is possible, that this per-
son, as a stranger or an enemy, may in his heart
have no kindness for them, or may even enter-
tain a hatred against them.


It may indeed be objected, that such a re-
mote sympathy is a very slight foundation for
a passion, and that so much industry and ap-
plication, as we frequently observe in philoso-
phers, can never be derived from so inconsid-

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