Page:An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding - Hume (1748).djvu/168

 For what Reason? but because a hasty Temper, tho' a constant Cause or Principle in the Mind, operates only by Intervals, and infects not the whole Character. Again, Repentance wipes off every Crime, if attended with a Reformation of Life and Manners. How is this to be accounted for? but by asserting, that Actions render a Person criminal, merely as they are Proofs of criminal Passions or Principles in the Mind; and when, by any Alteration of these Principles, they cease to be just Proofs, they likewise cease to be criminal. But except upon the Doctrine of Necessity, they never were just Proofs, and consequently never were criminal.

IT will be equally easy to prove, and from the same Arguments, that Liberty, according to that Definition above-mentioned, in which all Men agree, is also essential to Morality, and that no human Actions, where it is wanting, is susceptible of any moral Qualities, or can be the Object either of Approbation or Dislike. For as Actions are the Objects of our moral Sentiments, so far only as they are Indications or Proofs of the internal Character, Passions, and Affections; 'tis impossible they can give rise either to Praise or Blame, where they proceed not from these Principles, but are deriv'd altogether from external Force and Violence.