Page:An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals - Hume (1751).djvu/33

 betwixt the Sexes begets a Complacency and Good-will, very distinct from the Gratification of an Appetite. Tenderness to their Offspring, in all sensible Beings, is commonly able alone to counterballance the strongest Motives of Self-love, and has no Manner of Dependance on that Affection. What Interest can a fond Mother have in View, who loses her Health by assiduous Attendance on her sick Child, and afterwards languishes, and dies Grief, when freed, by its Death, from the Slavery of that Attendance?

Gratitude no Affection of the human Breast, or is that a Word merely, without any Meaning or Reality? Have we no Complacency or Satisfaction in one Man's Company above another's, and no Desire of the Welfare of our Friend, even tho' Absence or Death should prevent us from all Participation in it? Or what is it commonly, that gives us any Participation in it, even while alive and present, but our Affection and Regard to him?

and a thousand other Instances are Marks of a generous Benevolence in human Nature, where no real Interest binds us to the Object. And how an imaginary Interest, known and avow'd for such, can be the Origin of any Passion or Emotion, seems dif- Errata