BOOK III PART II
in the imagination, they are apt to be put on the
same footing, and are commonly supposed to
be endowed with the same qualities. We read-
ily pass from one to the other, and make no dif-
ference in our judgments concerning them; es-
pecially if the latter be inferior to the former.^19
It has been observed above, that the mind
has a natural propensity to join relations, es-
pecially resembling ones, and finds a hind of
fitness and uniformity in such an union. From
this propensity are derived these laws of na-
ture, that upon the first formation of society,
property always follows the present posses-
(^19) This source of property can never be explained but
from the imaginations; and one may affirm, that the
causes are here unmixed. We shall proceed to explain
them more particularly, and illustrate them by examples
from common life and experience.