BOOK II PART II
a violent. In this opposition the passion in
the end prevails over the imagination; but it
is commonly by complying with it, and by
seeking another quality, which may counter-
ballance that principle, from whence the oppo-
sition arises. When we love the father or mas-
ter of a family, we little think of his children
or servants. But when these are present with
us, or when it lies any ways in our power to
serve them, the nearness and contiguity in this
case encreases their magnitude, or at least re-
moves that opposition, which the fancy makes
to the transition of the affections. If the imagi-
nation finds a difficulty in passing from greater
to less, it finds an equal facility in passing from
remote to contiguous, which brings the matter
to an equality, and leaves the way open from
the one passion to the other.