Page:An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals - Hume (1751).djvu/205

 other Pursuits, with private Utility, and cannot be gratify'd without some important Sacrifices of Honour and Advantage? If so, we are but ill instructed in the Nature of the human Passions, and are more influenc'd by verbal Distinctions than by real Differences.

Contradiction, may vulgarly be suppos'd betwixt the social and selfish Sentiments or Dispositions, they are really no more opposite than selfish and ambitious, selfish and revengeful, selfish and vain. 'Tis requisite there be an original Propensity of some Kind, in order to be a Basis to Self-love, by giving a Relish to the Objects of its Pursuit; and none more fit for this Purpose than Beneficence or Humanity. The Goods of Fortune are spent in one Gratification or other: The Miser, who accumulates his annual Income, and lends it out at Interest, has really spent it in the Gratification of his Avarice. And 'twould be difficult to show, why a Man is more a Loser by a generous Action, than by any other Method of Expence; since the utmost he can attain, by the most elaborate Selfishness, is the Indulgence of some Affection.

if Life, without Passion, must be altogether insipid and tiresome; let a Man suppose he has full Power of modelling his own Disposition, and let