| All this seems to me a proof, that our approbation has, in those cases, an origin different from the prospect of utility and advantage, either to ourselves or others. |
| To which we may add, that men naturally, without reflection, approve of that character, which is most like their own. |
| The man of a mild disposition and tender affections, in forming a notion of the most perfect virtue, mixes in it more of benevolence and humanity, than the man of courage and enterprize, who naturally looks upon a certain elevation of mind as the most accomplished character. |
| This must evidently proceed from an immediate sympathy, which men have with characters similar to their own. |
| They enter with more warmth into such sentiments, and feel more sensibly the pleasure, which arises from them. |
| It is remarkable, that nothing touches a man of humanity more than any instance of extraordinary delicacy in love or friendship, where a person is attentive to the smallest concerns of his friend, and is willing to sacrifice to them the most considerable interest of his own. |
| Such delicacies have little influence on society; because they make us regard the greatest trifles: But they are the more engaging, the more minute the concern is, and are a proof of the highest merit in any one, who is capable of them. |
| The passions are so contagious, that they pass with the greatest facility from one person to another, and produce correspondent movements in all human breasts. |
| Where friendship appears in very signal instances, my heart catches the same passion, and is warmed by those warm sentiments, that display themselves before me. |
| Such agreeable movements must give me an affection to every one that excites them. |
| This is the case with every thing that is agreeable in any person. |
| The transition from pleasure to love is easy: But the transition must here be still more easy; since the agreeable sentiment, which is excited by sympathy, is love itself; and there is nothing required but to change the object. |
| Hence the peculiar merit of benevolence in all its shapes and appearances. |
| Hence even its weaknesses are virtuous and amiable; and a person, whose grief upon the loss of a friend were excessive, would be esteemed upon that account. |
| His tenderness bestows a merit, as it does a pleasure, on his melancholy. |
| We are not, however, to imagine, that all the angry passions are vicious, though they are disagreeable. |
| There is a certain indulgence due to human nature in this respect. |
| Anger and hatred are passions inherent in Our very frame and constitutions. |
| The want of them, on some occasions, may even be a proof of weakness and imbecillity. |
| And where they appear only in a low degree, we not only excuse them because they are natural; but even bestow our applauses on them, because they are inferior to what appears in the greatest part of mankind. |
| Where these angry passions rise up to cruelty, they form the most detested of all vices. |