Page:An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals - Hume (1751).djvu/60

 the same Footing with regard to them, and made us throw off all Restraints of Justice, and even of Humanity, in our Treatment of them. In many Nations, the female Sex are reduc'd to like Slavery, and are render'd incapable of all Property, in Opposition to their lordly Masters. But tho' the Males, when united, have, in all Countries, brute Force sufficient to maintain this severe Tyranny; yet such are the Insinuation, Address, and Charms of their fair Companions, that they are commonly able to break the Confederacy, and share with the superior Sex in all the Rights and Privileges of Society.

the human Species so fram'd by Nature as that each Individual possest within himself every Faculty, requisite both for his own Preservation and for the Propagation of his Kind: Were all Society and Intercourse cut off betwixt Man and Man, by the primary Intention of the supreme Creator: It seems evident, that so solitary a Being would be as much incapable of Justice, as of social Discourse and Conversation. Where mutual Regards and Forbearance of Purpose, they would never direct the Conduct of any reasonable Man. The headlong Course of the Passions would be check'd by no Reflection on future Consequences. And as each Man is here suppos'd to love himself alone, and to depend only on himself and his own Errata