It is full time they should
attempt a like reformation in all moral disquisitions; and reject
every system of ethics, however subtile or ingenious, which is not
founded on fact and observation."--(IV. pp. 242-4.)
No qualities give a man a greater claim to personal merit than
benevolence and justice; but if we inquire why benevolence deserves so
much praise, the answer will certainly contain a large reference to the
utility of that virtue to society; and as for justice, the very
existence of the virtue implies that of society; public utility is its
sole origin; and the measure of its usefulness is also the standard of
its merit. If every man possessed everything he wanted, and no one had
the power to interfere with such possession; or if no man desired that
which could damage his fellow-man, justice would have no part to play
in the universe. But as Hume observes:--
"In the present disposition of the human heart, it would perhaps be
difficult to find complete instances of such enlarged affections;
but still we may observe that the case of families approaches
towards it; and the stronger the mutual benevolence is among the
individuals, the nearer it approaches, till all distinction of
property be in a great measure lost and confounded among them.
Between married persons, the cement of friendship is by the laws
supposed so strong, as to abolish all division of possessions, and
has often, in reality, the force assigned to it.
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