Page:An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding - Hume (1748).djvu/172

 they labour'd under, were, in reality, Goods to the Universe; and that to an enlarg'd View, which could comprehend the whole System of Nature, every Event became an Object of Joy and Exultation. But tho' this Topic be specious and sublime, it was soon found in Practice weak and ineffectual. You would surely more irritate, than appease a Man, lying under the racking Pains of the Gout, by preaching up to him the Rectitude of those general Laws, which produc'd the malignant Humours in his Body, and led them, thro' the proper Canals, to the Nerves and Sinews, where they now excite such acute Torments. These enlarg'd Views may, for a Moment, please the Imagination of a speculative Man, who is plac'd in Ease and Security; but neither can they dwell with Constancy on his Mind, even tho' undisturb'd by the Emotions of Pain or Passion; much less can they maintain their Ground, when attack'd by such powerful Antagonists. The Affections take a narrower and more natural Survey of their Object; and by an Oeconomy, more suitable to the Infirmity of human Minds, regard alone the Objects around us, and are actuated by such Events as appear good or ill to the private System. The Case is the same with moral as with physical Ill; nor can it reasonably be suppos'd, that those remote Considerations, which are found of so little Efficacy with regard to the one, will have a