Page:An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals - Hume (1751).djvu/139

 one Extreme of Frugality is Avarice, which, as it both deprives a Man of all Use of his Riches, and checks Hospitality and every social Enjoyment, is justly censur'd on a double Account: Prodigality, the other Extreme, is commonly more hurtful to a Man himself; and each of these Extremes is blam'd above the other, according to the Temper of the Person who censures, and according to his greater or less Sensibility to Pleasure, either social or sensual.

Men, 'tis allow'd, are equally desirous of Happiness; but all Men are not equally successful in the Pursuit: Of which one chief Cause is the common Want of STRENGTH of MIND, which might enable us to resist the Temptation of present Ease or Pleasure, and carry us forward in the Search of more distant Profit and Enjoyment. Our Affections, on a general Prospect of their Objects, form certain Rules of Conduct, and certain Measures of Preference of one above another: And these Decisions, tho' really the Result of our calm Passions, and Propensities, (for what else can pronounce any Object eligible or the contrary?) are yet said, by a natural Abuse of Terms, to be the Determinations of pure Reason and Reflection. But when some of these Objects approach nearer us, or acquire the Advantages of favourable Lights and Positions, which