Page:An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals - Hume (1751).djvu/28

 and moulded into a Variety of Shapes and Appearances. But as the same Turn of Imagination prevails not in every Man, nor gives the same Direction to the original Passion; this is sufficient, even according to the selfish System, to make the widest Difference in human Characters, and denominate one Man virtuous and humane, another vicious and meanly interested. I esteem the Man, whose Self-love, by whatever Means, is so directed as to give him a Concern for others, and render him serviceable to Society: As I hate or despise him, who has no Regard to any Thing beyond his own pitiful Gratifications and Enjoyments. In vain would you suggest, that these Characters, tho' seemingly opposite, are, at the Bottom, the same, and that a very inconsiderable Turn of Imagination forms the whole Difference betwixt them. Each Character, notwithstanding these inconsiderable Differences, appears to me, in Practice, pretty durable and untransmutable. And I find not, in this, more than in other Subjects, that the natural Sentiments, arising from the general Appearances of Things, are easily destroy'd by resin'd Reflections concerning the minute Origin of these Appearances. Does not the lively, cheerful Colour of a Countenance inspire me with Complacency and Pleasure; even tho' I learn from Philosophy, that all Difference of Complexion arises from the most mi-