o illustrate this hypothesis we may compare it to that, by which I
have already explained the belief attending the judgments, which we form
from causation. I have observed, that in all judgments of this kind,
there is always a present impression and a related idea; and that
the present impression gives a vivacity to the fancy, and the relation
conveys this vivacity, by an easy transition, to the related idea.
Without the present impression, the attention is not fixed, nor the
spirits excited. Without the relation, this attention rests on its
first object, and has no farther consequence. There is evidently a great
analogy betwixt that hypothesis and our present one of an impression
and idea, that transfuse themselves into another impression and idea by
means of their double relation: Which analogy must be allowed to be no
despicable proof of both hypotheses.

SECT. VI LIMITATIONS OF THIS SYSTEM

But before we proceed farther in this subject, and examine particularly
all the causes of pride and humility, it will be proper to make some
limitations to the general system, THAT ALL AGREEABLE OBJECTS, RELATED
TO OURSELVES, BY AN ASSOCIATION OF IDEAS AND OF IMPRESSIONS, PRODUCE
PRIDE, AND DISAGREEABLE ONES, HUMILITY: And these limitations are
derived from the very nature of the subject.

I. Suppose an agreeable object to acquire a relation to self, the
first passion, that appears on this occasion, is joy; and this passion
discovers itself upon a slighter relation than pride and vain-glory. We
may feel joy upon being present at a feast, where our senses are regard
with delicacies of every kind: But it is only the master of the feast,
who, beside the same joy, has the additional passion of self-applause
and vanity. It is true, men sometimes boast of a great entertainment,
at which they have only been present; and by so small a relation convert
their pleasure into pride: But however, this must in general be owned,
that joy arises from a more inconsiderable relation than vanity, and
that many things, which are too foreign to produce pride, are yet able
to give us a delight and pleasure, The reason of the difference may be
explained thus. A relation is requisite to joy, in order to approach
the object to us, and make it give us any satisfaction. But beside this,
which is common to both passions, it is requisite to pride, in order
to produce a transition from one passion to another, and convert the
falsification into vanity