Page:An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals - Hume (1751).djvu/231

 such Rules are adopted as best serve the same End of public Utility, 'tis impossible for them to prevent all particular Hardships, or make beneficial Consequences result from every individual Case. 'Tis sufficient, if the whole Plan or Scheme be necessary to the Support of civil Society, and if the Ballance of Good, in the main, does thereby preponderate much above that of Evil. Even the general Laws of the Universe, tho' plann'd by infinite Wisdom, cannot exclude all Evil or Inconvenience, in every particular Operation.

has been asserted by some, that all Justice arises from HUMAN CONVENTIONS, and proceeds from the voluntary Choice, Consent, or Combination of Mankind. If by Convention be here meant a Promise (which is the most usual Sense of the Word) nothing can be more absurd, than this Position. The Observance of Promises is itself one of the most considerable Parts of Justice; and we are not surely bound to keep our Word, because we have given our Word to keep it. But if by Convention be meant a Sense of common Interest; which Sense each Man feels in his own Breast, which he observes in his Fellows, and which carries him, in concurrence with others, into a general Plan or System of Actions, that to public Utility; it must be own'd, that, in this Sense, Justice arises Errata