e circumstance, which I proposed to
take notice of. Where a person is possessed of a character, that in its
natural tendency is beneficial to society, we esteem him virtuous, and
are delighted with the view of his character, even though particular
accidents prevent its operation, and incapacitate him from being
serviceable to his friends and country. Virtue in rags is still virtue;
and the love, which it procures, attends a man into a dungeon or desart,
where the virtue can no longer be exerted in action, and is lost to all
the world. Now this may be esteemed an objection to the present system.
Sympathy interests us in the good of mankind; and if sympathy were the
source of our esteem for virtue, that sentiment of approbation coued
only take place, where the virtue actually attained its end, and
was beneficial to mankind. Where it fails of its end, it is only an
imperfect means; and therefore can never acquire any merit from that
end. The goodness of an end can bestow a merit on such means alone as
are compleat, and actually produce the end.

To this we may reply, that where any object, in all its parts, is fitted
to attain any agreeable end, it naturally gives us pleasure, and is
esteemed beautiful, even though some external circumstances be wanting
to render it altogether effectual. It is sufficient if every thing be
compleat in the object itself. A house, that is contrived with great
judgment for all the commodities of life, pleases us upon that account;
though perhaps we are sensible, that noone will ever dwell in it. A
fertile soil, and a happy climate, delight us by a reflection on the
happiness which they would afford the inhabitants, though at present the
country be desart and uninhabited. A man, whose limbs and shape promise
strength and activity, is esteemed handsome, though condemned to
perpetual imprisonment. The imagination has a set of passions belonging
to it, upon which our sentiments of beauty much depend. These passions
are moved by degrees of liveliness and strength, which are inferior to
belief, and independent of the real existence of their objects. Where a
character is, in every respect, fitted to be beneficial to society,
the imagination passes easily from the cause to the effect, without
considering that there are some circumstances wanting to render the
cause a complete one. General rules create a species of probability,
which sometimes influences the judgment, and always the imagination.

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