# Section IX: Of the Mixture of Benevolence and Anger with Compassion and Malice explained — A Treatise of Human Nature

> Chapter companion for A Treatise of Human Nature by David Hume.

## What happens

Hume explores how pity and malice, though seemingly contradictory to his system, are connected to love and hatred through a double relation of impressions and ideas. He argues that pity, a desire for another's happiness, is related to benevolence, which is connected to love; malice, a desire for another's misery, is related to anger, which is connected to hatred. The strength of sympathy determines whether we feel love or hatred: strong sympathy with misery produces benevolence and love, while weak sympathy produces hatred or contempt. He illustrates this with examples of rival tradesmen, merchants in partnership, and reactions to different degrees of poverty and suffering.

## Themes in this chapter

### Sympathy and Social Influence

Hume explains how sympathy with others' emotions, depending on its strength, leads to either love or hatred, showing the social nature of passions.

### Passions and the Self

The chapter examines how passions like pity and malice are directed toward others and how they relate to the self's desires and aversions.

## Character check-ins

### David Hume

Author of the Treatise, presenting his theory on the mixture of passions.

## Key lines

> When our fancy considers directly the sentiments of others, and enters deep into them, it makes us sensible of all the passions it surveys, but in a particular manner of grief or sorrow.

When we vividly imagine the feelings of others, we become aware of all their emotions, especially their sadness.

_Hume describes the mechanism of sympathy._

> Benevolence or the appetite, which attends love, is a desire of the happiness of the person beloved, and an aversion to his misery; as anger or the appetite, which attends hatred, is a desire of the misery of the person hated, and an aversion to his happiness.

Love includes a desire for the beloved's happiness and an aversion to their suffering, while hatred includes a desire for the hated person's misery and an aversion to their happiness.

_Hume defines benevolence and anger in terms of desires._

> A certain degree of poverty produces contempt; but a degree beyond causes compassion and goodwill.

Mild poverty leads to contempt, but extreme poverty evokes compassion and kindness.

_Hume illustrates how the degree of sympathy affects the resulting passion._

## Links

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