HKB
image of the thing be new; the mind will then be at a stand in the contemplation thereof, until it is determined by other causes to think of something else.
Thus the conception of a new object, considered in itself, is of the same nature as other conceptions; hence, I do not include wonder among the emotions, nor do I see why I should so include it, inasmuch as this distraction of the mind arises from no positive cause drawing away the mind from other objects, but merely from the absence of a cause, which should determine the mind to pass from the contemplation of one object to the contemplation of another.
I, therefore, recognize only three primitive or primary emotions (as I said in the note to III. xi.), namely, pleasure, pain, and desire. I have spoken of wonder simply because it is customary to speak of certain emotions springing from the three primitive ones by different names, when they are referred to the objects of our wonder. I am led by the same motive to add a definition of contempt.
V. "Contempt" is the conception of anything which touches the mind so little, that its presence leads the mind to imagine those qualities which are not in it rather than such as are in it (cf. III. lii. note).
The definitions of veneration and scorn I here pass over, for I am not aware that any emotions are named after them.
VI. "Love" is pleasure, accompanied by the idea of an external cause.
^^^^^Explanation--This definition explains sufficiently clearly the essence of love; the definition given by those authors who say that love is "the lover's wish to unite himself to the loved object" expresses a property, but not the essence of love; and, as such authors have not sufficiently discerned love's essence, they have been unable to acquire a true conception of its properties, accordingly their definition is on all hands admitted to be very obscure. It must, however, be noted, that when I say that it is a property of love, that the lover should wish to unite himself to the beloved object, I do not here mean by "wish" consent, or conclusion, or a free decision of the mind (for I have shown such, in II. xlviii., to be fictitious); neither do I mean a desire of being united to the loved object when it is absent, or of continuing in its presence when it is at hand; for love can be conceived without either of these desires; but by "wish" I mean the contentment, which is in the lover, on account of the presence of the beloved object, whereby the pleasure of the lover is strengthened, or at least maintained.
VII. "Hatred" is pain, accompanied by the idea of an external cause.
^^^^^Explanation--These observations are easily grasped after what has been said in the explanation of the preceding definition (cf. also III. xiii. note).
VIII. "Inclination" is pleasure, accompanied by the idea of something which is accidentally a cause of pleasure.
IX. "Aversion" is pain, accompanied by the idea of something which is accidentally the cause of pain (cf. III. xv. note).
X. "Devotion" is love towards one whom we admire.
^^^^^Explanation--Wonder (admiratio) arises (as we have shown, III. lii.) from the novelty of a thing. If, therefore, it happens that the object of our wonder is often conceived by us, we shall cease to wonder at it; thus we see, that the emotion of devotion readily degenerates into simple love.
XI. "Derision" is pleasure arising from our conceiving the presence of a quality, which we despise, in an object which we hate.
^^^^^Explanation--In so far as we despise a thing which we hate, we deny existence thereof (III. lii. note), and to that extent rejoice (III. xx.). But since we assume that man hates that which he derides, it follows that the pleasure in question is not without alloy (cf. III. xlvii. note).