he impressions. Now it has been observed, that impressions or
passions are connected only by their resemblance, and that where any two
passions place the mind in the same or in similar dispositions, it
very naturally passes from the one to the other: As on the contrary, a
repugnance in the dispositions produces a difficulty in the transition
of the passions. But it is observable, that this repugnance may arise
from a difference of degree as well as of kind; nor do we experience a
greater difficulty in passing suddenly from a small degree of love to a
small degree of hatred, than from a small to a great degree of either
of these affections. A man, when calm or only moderately agitated, is so
different, in every respect, from himself, when disturbed with a violent
passion, that no two persons can be more unlike; nor is it easy to
pass from the one extreme to the other, without a considerable interval
betwixt them.

The difficulty is not less, if it be not rather greater, in passing from
the strong passion to the weak, than in passing from the weak to the
strong, provided the one passion upon its appearance destroys the other,
and they do not both of them exist at once. But the case is entirely
altered, when the passions unite together, and actuate the mind at
the same time. A weak passion, when added to a strong, makes not so
considerable a change in the disposition, as a strong when added to a
weak; for which reason there is a closer connexion betwixt the great
degree and the small, than betwixt the small degree and the great.

The degree of any passion depends upon the nature of its object; and an
affection directed to a person, who is considerable in our eyes, fills
and possesses the mind much more than one, which has for its object
a person we esteem of less consequence. Here then the contradiction
betwixt the propensities of the imagination and passion displays itself.
When we turn our thought to a great and a small object, the imagination
finds more facility in passing from the small to the great, than from
the great to the small; but the affections find a greater difficulty:
And as the affections are a more powerful principle than the
imagination, no wonder they prevail over it, and draw the mind to their
side. In spite of the difficulty of passing from the idea of great to
that of little, a passion directed to the former, produces always
a similar passion towards the latter; when the great and little are
related