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Journal

Upon the whole, there remains nothing, which can give us an esteem for power and riches, and a contempt for meanness and poverty, except the principle of sympathy, by which we enter into the sentiments of the rich and poor, and partake of their pleasures and uneasiness. Riches give satisfaction to their possessor; and this satisfaction is convey’d to the beholder by the imagination, which produces an idea resembling the original impression in force and vivacity.

David Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature, book II, part II, section V

Hume reminds us of the importance of surrounding us with agreeable things, which bring pleasure, in quality rather than quantity. Through imagination, one transitions towards esteem for a person who possesses agreeable commodities.

Coherent with Hume’s system, it is the passion of love which is at stake, through sympathy:

This agreeable idea or impression is connected with love, which is an agreeable passion.

Finally, it is once again thanks to the double relation of impressions and ideas, a necessary correspondence to cause these passions.

It proceeds from a thinking conscious being, which is the very object of love. From this relation of impressions, and identity of ideas, the passion arises, according to my hypothesis.

A rich person is satisfies themself with what she owns, thus causing attraction of others, even though the latter take no personal interest (because having no possibility in sharing and benefiting from the rich’s commodities)—by pure sympathy.