BOOK II PART II
in all kinds of comparison an object makes
us always receive from another, to which it is
compared, a sensation contrary to what arises
from itself in its direct and immediate survey.
A small object makes a great one appear still
greater. A great object makes a little one appear
less. Deformity of itself produces uneasiness;
but makes us receive new pleasure by its con-
trast with a beautiful object, whose beauty is
augmented by it; as on the other hand, beauty,
which of itself produces pleasure, makes us
receive a new pain by the contrast with any
thing ugly, whose deformity it augments. The
case, therefore, must be the same with happi-
ness and misery. The direct survey of another’s
pleasure naturally gives us plcasure, and there-
fore produces pain when cornpared with our
own. His pain, considered in itself, is painful
to us, but augments the idea of our own happi-