An essay on the history of civil society / [Adam Ferguson].

  • Adam Ferguson
Date:
1789
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An essay on the history of civil society / [Adam Ferguson]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    25/438 page 15
    attain; not prior to theexercife of their faculties, but procured by their juft application. Of all the terms that we employ in treating of human affairs, thofe of natural and unnatural are the leaf!; determinate in their meaning. Oppofed to affedation, frowardnefs, or any other defed of the temper or dharader, the natural is an epithet of praife; but employed to fpecify a condnd which proceeds from the nature of man, can ferve to dif- tinguifh nothing: for all the adions of men are equally the refult of their nature. At moft, this language can only refer to the general and prevail- ing fenfe or pradice of mankind; and the purpofe of every important inquiry on this fubjedmaybe ferved bv the ufe of a language equally familiar and more precife. What is juft , or unjuft ? What is happy or wretched, in the manners of men ?What in their various fituations , is favourable or adverfe to their amiable qualities; are queftions to which we mav exped a fatisfadory anfyver; and whatever may have been the original ftate of our fpecies it is of more importance to know the condition to which we ourfelves fhould afpire, than that which our anceftors may be fuppofed to have left. S E C T. II. Of the Principles of Sclfprcfcrvation. Tf in human nature there are qualities by which it is diftinguifhed from every other part of the
    No text description is available for this image
    No text description is available for this image
    No text description is available for this image