Page:An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals - Hume (1751).djvu/163

 course of Life. This Vice constitutes what we properly call Meanness; when a Man can submit to the basest Slavery, in order to gain his Ends; fawn upon those, who abuse him; and degrade himself by Intimacies and Familiarities with undeserving Inferiors. A certain Degree of generous Pride or Self-value is so requisite, that the Absence of it in the Mind displeases after the same Manner, as the Want of a Nose, Eye, or any of the most material Features of the Face or Members of the Body.

Utility of COURAGE, both to the Public and to the Person possest of it, is an obvious Foundation of Merit: But to any one, who considers the Matter justly, it will appear, that this Quality has a peculiar Lustre, which it derives altogether from itself, and from that noble Elevation inseperable from it. Its Figure, drawn by Painters and by Poets, displays, in each Feature, a Sublimity