BOOK II PART II
ity,that the cause of both these passions is always
related to a thinking being, and that the cause of the
former produce a separate pleasure, and of the latter
a separate uneasiness.
One of these suppositions, viz, that the cause
of love and hatred must be related to a per-
son or thinking being, in order to produce these
passions, is not only probable, but too evident
to be contested. Virtue and vice, when con-
sidered in the abstract; beauty and deformity,
when placed on inanimate objects; poverty and
riches when belonging to a third person, excite
no degree of love or hatred, esteem or contempt
towards those, who have no relation to them. A
person looking out at a window, sees me in the
street, and beyond me a beautiful palace, with
which I have no concern: I believe none will
pretend, that this person will pay me the same