Page:An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals - Hume (1751).djvu/111

 preferably to Seneca or Burrhus, must have possest his steady and uniform Approbation.

or Patriot, that serves our own Country, in our own Time, has always a more passionate Regard paid him, than one whose beneficial Influence operated on distant Ages or remote Nations; where the Good, resulting from his generous Humanity, being less connected with us, seems more obscure, and affects us with a less lively Sympathy. We may own the Merit to be equally great, tho' our Sentiments are not rais'd to an equal Height, in both Cases. The Judgment here corrects the Inequalities of our internal Emotions and Perceptions; in like Manner, as it preserves us from Error, in the several Variations of Images, presented to our external Senses. The same Object, at a double Distance, really throws on the Eye a Picture of but half the Bulk; and yet we imagine it appears of the same Size in both Situations; because we know, that, on our Approach to it, its Image would expand on the Senses, and that the Difference consists not in the Object itself, but in our Position with regard to it. And, indeed, without such Correction of Appearances, both in internal and external Sentiment, Men could never think or talk steadily on any Subject; while their fluctuating Situations produce a continual Variation on Objects,