# Section IX: Of the Direct Passions explained — A Treatise of Human Nature > Chapter companion for A Treatise of Human Nature by David Hume. ## What happens Hume examines the direct passions, which arise immediately from good and evil (pain and pleasure). He distinguishes them from indirect passions like pride and humility, which require a double relation of impressions and ideas. He focuses on hope and fear, arguing that they are mixtures of joy and grief produced by the uncertainty of probable events. The mind fluctuates between contrary views, causing a union of opposite emotions, which results in hope or fear depending on the predominance of joy or grief. He also discusses how contrary passions interact, comparing them to chemical mixtures, and notes that some passions arise from instinct rather than from good or evil. ## Themes in this chapter ### Passions and the Self Hume explores the direct passions (desire, aversion, grief, joy, hope, fear) as arising from pain and pleasure, and their relation to the self. ### Custom and General Rules The discussion of probability and the fluctuation of imagination relies on custom and habit in forming beliefs about uncertain events. ## Character check-ins ### David Hume Author and narrator, presenting his theory of direct passions. ## Key lines > It is easy to observe, that the passions, both direct and indirect, are founded on pain and pleasure, and that in order to produce an affection of any kind, it is only requisite to present some good or evil. All passions, whether direct or indirect, stem from pain and pleasure; to evoke any emotion, one simply needs to present something good or bad. _Hume establishes the foundational role of pain and pleasure in generating passions._ > The mind by an original instinct tends to unite itself with the good, and to avoid the evil, though they be conceived merely in idea, and be considered as to exist in any future period of time. By a natural instinct, the mind seeks good and avoids evil, even when these are only imagined or anticipated in the future. _This explains the origin of desire and aversion as direct passions._ > The imagination is extreme quick and agile; but the passions are slow and restive: For which reason, when any object is presented, that affords a variety of views to the one, and emotions to the other; though the fancy may change its views with great celerity; each stroke will not produce a clear and distinct note of passion, but the one passion will always be mixed and confounded with the other. The imagination moves rapidly, but passions are sluggish; when an object offers multiple perspectives, the passions blend together rather than producing distinct emotions. _This explains how hope and fear arise from the mixture of joy and grief._ > If the objects of the contrary passions be totally different, the passions are like two opposite liquors in different bottles, which have no influence on each other. If the objects be intimately connected, the passions are like an alkali and an acid, which, being mingled, destroy each other. If the relation be more imperfect, and consists in the contradictory views of the same object, the passions are like oil and vinegar, which, however mingled, never perfectly unite and incorporate. Contrary passions interact differently depending on the relation of their objects: separate objects leave them unaffected, closely related objects cancel each other out, and partially related objects mix without fully combining. _Hume uses analogies to illustrate the varying effects of contrary passions._ ## Links - HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/a_treatise_of_human_nature_se/chapters/section-ix-of-the-direct-passions - Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/a_treatise_of_human_nature_se - All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/a_treatise_of_human_nature_se/chapters