BOOK II PART I
though perhaps I never really feel any harm,
and discover by the event, that, philosophically
speaking, the person never had any power of
harming me; since he did not exert any; this
prevents not my uneasiness from the preced-
ing uncertainty. The agreeable passions may
here operate as well as the uneasy, and convey
a pleasure when I perceive a good to become
either possible or probable by the possibility
or probability of another’s bestowing it on me,
upon the removal of any strong motives, which
might formerly have hindered him.
But we may farther observe, that this satis-
faction encreases, when any good approaches
in such a manner that it it in one’s own power
to take or leave it, and there neither is any
physical impediment, nor any very strong mo-
tive to hinder our enjoyment. As all men desire