Page:Essays, Moral and Political - David Hume (1741).djvu/176

 there is a natural Difference betwixt Merit and Demerit, Virtue and Vice, Wisdom and Folly, no reasonable Man will deny: But yet 'tis evident, that in affirming the Term, which denotes either our Approbation or Blame, we are commonly more influenced by Comparison than by any fixt unalterable Standard in the Nature of Things. In like manner, Quantity, and Extension, and Bulk, are by every one acknowledg'd to be real Things: But when we call any Animal great or little, we always form a secret Comparison betwixt that Animal and others of the same Species; and 'tis that Comparison which regulates our Judgment concerning its Greatness. A Dog and a Horse may be of the very same Size, while the one is admir'd for the Greatness of its Bulk, and the other for the Smallness. When I am present, therefore, at any Dispute, I always consider with myself, whether or not it be a Question merely of Comparison, that is the Subject of the Dispute; and if it be, whether the Disputants compare the same Objects together, or talk of Things, that are widely different. As this is commonly the Case, I have long since learnt to neglect such Disputes as