Page:An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals - Hume (1751).djvu/119



is more usual, than for Philosophers to encroach upon the Province of Grammarians; and to engage in Disputes of Words, while they imagine, that they are handling Controversies of the deepest Importance and Concern. Thus, were we here to assert or to deny, that all laudable Qualities of the Mind were to be consider'd as Virtues or moral Attributes, many would imagine, that we had enter'd upon one of the profoundest Speculations of Ethics; tho' 'tis probable, all the while, that the greatest Part of the Dispute would be found entirely verbal. To avoid, therefore, all frivolous Subtilties and Altercations, as much as possible, we shall content Ourselves with observing, first, that, in common Life, the Sentiments of Censure or Approbation, produc'd by mental Qualities of every Kind, are