Page:An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals - Hume (1751).djvu/185



may justly appear surprizing, that any Man, in so late an Age, should find it requisite to prove, by elaborate Reasonings, that VIRTUE or PERSONAL MERIT consists altogether in the Possession of Qualities, useful or agreeable to the Person himself or to others. It might be expected that this Principle would have occur'd even to the first rude, unpractis'd Enquirers concerning Morals, and been receiv'd, from its own Evidence, without any Argument or Disputation. Whatever is valuable in any Kind so naturally classes itself under the Division of useful or agreeable, the utile or the dulce, that 'tis not easy to imagine, why we should ever seek farther, or consider the Question as a Matter of nice Research or Enquiry. And as every Thing