A Treatise of Human Nature

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BOOK II PART II


ery of the person beloved or hated; all which
views, mixing together, make only one passion.
According to this system, love is nothing but
the desire of happiness to another person, and
hatred that of misery. The desire and aversion
constitute the very nature of love and hatred.
They are not only inseparable but the same.


But this is evidently contrary to experience.
For though it is certain we never love any per-
son without desiring his happiness, nor hate
any without wishing his misery, yet these de-
sires arise only upon the ideas of the happiness
or misery of our friend or enemy being pre-
sented by the imagination, and are not abso-
lutely essential to love and hatred. They are the
most obvious and natural sentiments of these
affections, but not the only ones. The passions
may express themselves in a hundred ways,

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