BOOK II PART II
verted by it, and seem to authorize its errors.
The conclusion I draw from these two prin-
ciples, joined to the influence of comparison
above-mentioned, is very short and decisive.
Every object is attended with some emotion
proportioned to it; a great object with a great
emotion, a small object with a small emotion.
A great object, therefore, succeeding a small
one makes a great emotion succeed a small one.
Now a great emotion succeeding a small one
becomes still greater, and rises beyond its ordi-
nary proportion. But as there is a certain degree
of an emotion, which commonly attends every
magnitude of an object; when the emotion en-
creases, we naturally imagine that the object
has likewise encreased. The effect conveys our
view to its usual cause, a certain degree of emo-
tion to a certain magnitude of the object; nor do