he is not
sensible of the disproportion, and is no way affected by it. A sense
of superiority in another breeds in all men an inclination to keep
themselves at a distance from him, and determines them to redouble the
marks of respect and reverence, when they are obliged to approach him;
and where they do not observe that conduct, it is a proof they are not
sensible of his superiority. From hence too it proceeds, that any great
difference in the degrees of any quality is called a distance by a
common metaphor, which, however trivial it may appear, is founded on
natural principles of the imagination. A great difference inclines us to
produce a distance. The ideas of distance and difference are, therefore,
connected together. Connected ideas are readily taken for each other;
and this is in general the source of the metaphor, as we shall have
occasion to observe afterwards.

SECT. XI OF THE AMOROUS PASSION, OR LOVE BETWIXT THE SEXES

Of all the compound passions, which proceed from a mixture of love and
hatred with other affections, no one better deserves our attention, than
that love, which arises betwixt the sexes, as well on account of its
force and violence, as those curious principles of philosophy, for
which it affords us an uncontestable argument. It is plain, that this
affection, in its most natural state, is derived from the conjunction
of three different impressions or passions, viz. The pleasing sensation
arising from beauty; the bodily appetite for generation; and a generous
kindness or good-will. The origin of kindness from beauty may be
explained from the foregoing reasoning. The question is how the bodily
appetite is excited by it.

The appetite of generation, when confined to a certain degree, is
evidently of the pleasant kind, and has a strong connexion with, all the
agreeable emotions. Joy, mirth, vanity, and kindness are all incentives
to this desire; as well as music, dancing, wine, and good cheer. On the
other hand, sorrow, melancholy, poverty, humility are destructive of it.
From this quality it is easily conceived why it should be connected with
the sense of beauty.

But there is another principle that contributes to the same effect.
I have observed that the parallel direction of the desires is a real
relation, and no less than a resemblance in their sensation, produces
a connexion among them. That we may fully comprehend the extent of this
relation, we must consider, that any principal d