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.

    32/438 page 22
    2Z they have adually found, that benevolence is no more than a fpecies of felf-love; and would oblige us , if poffible , to look out for a new fet of names, by which we may diftinguifh the felfifh- nefs of the parent when he takes care of his child, from his felfifhnefs when he only takes care of himfelf. For, according to this philofophy, as in both cafes he only means to gratify a defue of his own, he is in both cafes equally felfifh. The term benevolent, in the mean time, is not employed to charaderife perfons who have no defires of their own, but perfons whofe own defires prompt them to procure- the welfare of others. The fad is, that we fhould need only a frefih fupply of language, inftead of that which by this feeming difeovery we fhould have loft, in order to make our reafonings proceed as they formerly did. But it is certainly impoftible to five and to ad with men, without employing different names to diftinguifh the humane from the cruel, and the benevolent from the felfifh. These terms have their equivalents in every tongue; they were invented by men of no refine- ment, who only meant to exprefs what they dif- tindly perceived, or ftrongly felt. And if a man of fpeculation fhould prove , that we are felfifh in a fenfe of his own , it does not follow that •we are fo in the fenfe of the vulgar; or, as or- dinary men would underftand his conclufion, that we are condemned in every mftancc to ad on motives of intereft, covetoufnefs, pufillanimi- ty, and cowardice; for fuch is conceived to be
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