BOOK II PART II
assist each other in their operations when their
propensities are similar, and when they act
upon the same object. The mind has always a
propensity to pass from a passion to any other
related to it; and this propensity is forwarded
when the object of the one passion is related
to that of the other. The two impulses concur
with each other, and render the whole transi-
tion more smooth and easy. But if it should
happen, that while the relation of ideas, strictly
speaking, continues the same, its influence, in
causing a transition of the imagination, should
no longer take place, it is evident its influence
on the passions must also cease, as being de-
pendent entirely on that transition. This is the
reason why pride or humility is not transfused
into love or hatred with the same ease, that the
latter passions are changed into the former. If
a person be my brother I am his likewise: but