Page:Essays, Moral and Political - David Hume (1741).djvu/179

 all the World is agreed, that Human Understanding falls infinitely short of perfect Wisdom, 'tis proper we should know when this Comparison takes Place, that we may not dispute where there is no real Difference in our Sentiments. Man falls much more short of perfect Wisdom, and even of his own Ideas of perfect Wisdom, than Animals do of Man; but yet the latter Difference is so considerable, that nothing but a Comparison with the former, can make it appear of little Moment.

' also very usual to compare one Man with another; and finding very few, that we can call wise or virtuous, we are apt to entertain a contemptible Notion of our Species in general. That we may be sensible of the Fallacy of this Way of Reasoning, we may observe, that the Honourable Appellations of wise and virtuous, are not annex'd to any particular Degree of those Qualities of Wisdom and Virtue; but arise altogether from the Comparison we make betwixt one Man and another. When we find a Man, who arrives at such a Pitch of Wisdom as is very uncommon, we pronounce him a wise Man: So that