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A Treatise Of Human Nature, Volume 2
BOOK II OF THE PASSIONS
PART I OF PRIDE AND HUMILITY
SECT. I DIVISION OF THE SUBJECT
As all the perceptions of the mind may be divided into impressions and
ideas, so the impressions admit of another division into original and
secondary. This division of the impressions is the same with that which
I formerly made use of [Book I. Part I. Sect. 2.] when I distinguished
them into impressions of sensation and reflection. Original impressions
or impressions of sensation are such as without any antecedent
perception arise in the soul, from the constitution of the body, from
the animal spirits, or from the application of objects to the external
organs. Secondary, or reflective impressions are such as proceed from
some of these original ones, either immediately or by the interposition
of its idea. Of the first kind are all the impressions of the senses,
and all bodily pains and pleasures: Of the second are the passions, and
other emotions resembling them.
It is certain, that the mind, in its perceptions, must begin somewhere;
and that since the impressions precede their correspondent ideas, there
must be some impressions, which without any introduction make their
appearance in the soul. As these depend upon natural and physical
causes, the examination of them would lead me too far from my present
subject, into the sciences of anatomy and natural philosophy. For this
reason I shall here confine myself to those other impressions, which
I have called secondary and reflective, as arising either from the
original impressions, or from their ideas. Bodily pains and pleasures
are the source of many passions, both when felt and considered by the
mind; but arise originally in the soul, or i