P52: If we have previously seen an object together with others, or we imagine it has nothing but what is common to many things, we shall not consider it so long as one which we imagine to have something singular.

Dem.: As soon as we imagine an object we have seen with others, we shall immediately recollect the others (by IIP18 & P18 S), and so from considering one we immediately pass to considering the other. And the reasoning is the same concerning the object we imagine to have nothing but what is common to many things. For imagining that is supposing that we consider nothing in it but what we have seen before with others.

But when we suppose that we imagine in an object something singular, which we have never seen before, we are only saying that when the Mind considers that object, it has nothing in itself which it is led to consider from considering that. And so it is determined to consider only that. Therefore, if we have seen, etc., q.e.d.

Schol.: This affection of the Mind, or this imagination of a singular thing, insofar as it is alone in the Mind, is called Wonder. But if it is aroused by an object we fear, it is called Consternation, because Wonder at an evil keeps a man so suspended in considering it that he cannot think of other things by which he could avoid that evil. But if what we wonder at is a man’s prudence, diligence, or something else of that kind, because we consider him as far surpassing us in this, then the Wonder is called Veneration. Otherwise, if what we wonder at is the man’s anger, envy, etc., the wonder is called Dread.

Next, if we wonder at the prudence, diligence, etc., of a man we love, the Love will thereby (by P12) be greater and this Love joined to Wonder, or Veneration, we call Devotion.

In this way we can also conceive Hate, Hope, Confidence, and other Affects to be joined to Wonder, and so we can deduce more Affects than those which are usually indicated by the accepted words. So it is clear that the names of the affects are found more from the ordinary usage {of words} than from an accurate knowledge {of the affects}. To Wonder is opposed Disdain, the cause of which, however, is generally this: because we see that someone wonders at, loves or fears something, or something appears at first glance like things we admire, love, fear, etc. (by P15, P15 C, and P27), we are determined to wonder at, love, fear, etc., the same thing; but if, from the thing’s presence, or from considering it more accurately, we are forced to deny it whatever can be the cause of Wonder, Love, Fear, etc., then the Mind remains determined by the thing’s presence to think more of the things that are not in the object than of those that are (though the object’s presence usually determines {the Mind} to think chiefly of what is in the object).

Next, as Devotion stems from Wonder at a thing we love, so Mockery stems from Disdain for a thing we hate or fear, and Contempt from Disdain for folly, as Veneration stems from Wonder at prudence. Finally, we can conceive Love, Hope, Love of Esteem, and other Affects joined to Disdain, and from that we can deduce in addition other Affects, which we also do not usually distinguish from the others by any single term.