BOOK I PART III
As belief is almost absolutely requisite to
the exciting our passions, so the passions in
their turn are very favourable to belief; and
not only such facts as convey agreeable emo-
tions, but very often such as give pain, do upon
that account become more readily the objects
of faith and opinion. A coward, whose fears
are easily awakened, readily assents to every
account of danger he meets with; as a person
of a sorrowful and melancholy disposition is
very credulous of every thing, that nourishes
his prevailing passion. When any affecting ob-
ject is presented, it gives the alarm, and ex-
cites immediately a degree of its proper pas-
sion; especially in persons who are naturally
inclined to that passion. This emotion passes
by an easy transition to the imagination; and
diffusing itself over our idea of the affecting ob-
ject, makes us form that idea with greater force