1. We must distinguish between calm and weak passions and between violent and strong passions. A calm passion may influence the will more stongly than the a violent passion. When it has settled in as a principle of action and is what predominantly inclines the soul to act, it encounters no opposition, while a violent passion will be weaker in its effects because of the opposition it stirs up. Still, the author advises appeal to the violent passions when trying to get someone to act, and to work on his inclination as opposed to what is commonly called “reason.” Both kinds of passion are governed by the good or evil in the objects arousing them, and both pursue good and avoid evil. The difference between them lies in the remoteness or nearness of the object. [This would explain the advantage of trying to stoke up violent passions if we want to get someone to act.] The author will in this section consider the variation of circumstances and objects that produce calm or violent passions.

2. It has been shown from experience that the double relation of impessions and objects is needed to make one passion produce another. [For example, love can produce pride when the loved person is closely related to ourselves, as described in Book II, Part II, Section 5, Paragraph 21.] But if two passions already have been produced and are both present to the mind, “they readily mingle and unite, tho’ they have but one relation,and sometimes without any.” The weaker relation is overwhelmed by the stronger one and is converted into the stronger one. This is explained by the action of the animal spirits, which, “when once excited, easily receive a change in their direction; and ’tis natural to imagine this change will come from the prevailing affection.” The connection is closer between two passions than between a passion and lack of passion (indifference).

3. An example is a person “heartily in love.” The faults of the other lover are unpleasant and naturally lead to anger and hatred, yet they are found instead to reinforce the passion of love. Another example is the way a politician will incite a passion by withholding information and increasing curiosity to a high level. The courage of a soldier is increased when he thinks of his comrades, but his fear increases when he thinks of his enemy. The original courage is converted into its opposite, fear. The author notes that all the regalia of war increase courage when they are borne by our fellow soldiers but increase fear when borne by the eneomy, “tho’ agreeable and beautiful in themselves.”

4. When good or evil is introduced into a situation when two passions are present, it not only produces the direct passions of desire or aversion, but this production reinforces the original passions.

5. When there are opposing passions that create a new emotion by their opposition, and this is easily converted into the stronger of the two passions, so that it becomes stronger than it would have been had the emotion not been produced. An example is when our passions are opposed to duty. The duty does not overcome the contrary passions. Instead, it creates a desire to do what is unlawful.

6. It does not matter whether the opposition is between internal motives (I am motivated to do two opposing things) or between what we want and what externally stands in the way of it. The efforts to surmount the obstacle “excite the spirits and enliven the passions.”

7. Uncertainty works in the same way as opposition: it produces an agitation that reinforces the prevailing passion.

8. Conversely, security diminishes the passions, because when left to itself, without uncertainty to stoke it, the mind languishes. A new flow of passion is needed for the mind to perserve its level of passion. Although despair is the opposite of security, it also causes the mind to languish.

9. Another example is the way in which the passions are aroused by something that is only partly revealed. The imagination goes to work to complete the favorable image we already have, and uncertainty plays a role as well.

10. Absence increases or diminishes the strength of the passions according to the circumstances. It destroys weak passions and increases strong ones, as the Duke de la Rouchfoucault has compared to the way the wind blows out a candle but stokes up a fire. The length of absence weakens the idea and hence the passion, but if the idea is so strong as to be able to support itself, the uneasiness increases the passion.

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