Page:Essays, Moral and Political - David Hume (1741).djvu/88

 himself discovers a true Sentiment of Virtue in his History of Florence. When he talks as a Politician, he considers Poisoning, Assassination and Perjury as lawful Arts of Power; but when he speaks as an Historian, he shows so keen an indignation against Vice, and so warm an Approbation of Virtue in many Passages, that I could not forbear applying to him that Remark of Horace, That if you chace away Nature, though with never so great Indignity, she will always return upon you. Nor is this Combination of Historians in favour of Virtue at all difficult to be accounted for. When a Man of Business enters into Life and Action, he is more apt to consider the Characters of Men, as they have Relation to his Interest, than as they stand in themselves; and has his Judgment warped on every Occasion by the Violence of his Passion. When a Philosopher contemplates Characters and Manners in his Closet, the general abstract View of the Objects leaves the Mind so cold and unmoved, that the Sentiments of Nature have no Room to play, and he scarce feels the Difference betwixt Vice and Virtue. History keeps in a just Medium betwixt these Extremes, and places the Objects in their true