BOOK III PART III
what makes the end agreeable? The person is
a stranger: I am no way interested in him, nor
lie under any obligation to him: His happiness
concerns not me, farther than the happiness
of every human, and indeed of every sensible
creature: That is, it affects me only by sympa-
thy. From that principle, whenever I discover
his happiness and good, whether in its causes
or effects, I enter so deeply into it, that it gives
me a sensible emotion. The appearance of
qualities, that have a tendency to promote it,
have an agreeable effect upon my imagination,
and command my love and esteem.
This theory may serve to explain, why the
same qualities, in all cases, produce both pride
and love, humility and hatred; and the same
man is always virtuous or vicious, accom-
plished or despicable to others, who is so to