ubt, may be very
considerable) arises from nothing but the pleasure it conveys to those
who are present.

In this view, cleanliness is also to be regarded as a virtue; since it
naturally renders us agreeable to others, and is a very considerable
source of love and affection. No one will deny, that a negligence in
this particular is a fault; and as faults are nothing but smaller vices,
and this fault can have no other origin than the uneasy sensation, which
it excites in others, we may in this instance, seemingly so trivial,
dearly discover the origin of the moral distinction of vice and virtue
in other instances.

Besides all those qualities, which render a person lovely or valuable,
there is also a certain JE-NE-SCAI-QUOI of agreeable and handsome, that
concurs to the same effect. In this case, as well as in that of wit and
eloquence, we must have recourse to a certain sense, which acts without
reflection, and regards not the tendencies of qualities and characters.
Some moralists account for all the sentiments of virtue by this sense.
Their hypothesis is very plausible. Nothing but a particular enquiry can
give the preference to any other hypothesis. When we find, that almost
all the virtues have such particular tendencies; and also find, that
these tendencies are sufficient alone to give a strong sentiment of
approbation: We cannot doubt, after this, that qualities are approved
of, in proportion to the advantage, which results from them.

The decorum or indecorum of a quality, with regard to the age, or
character, or station, contributes also to its praise or blame. This
decorum depends, in a great measure, upon experience. It is usual to
see men lose their levity, as they advance in years. Such a degree
of gravity, therefore, and such years, are connected together in our
thoughts. When we observe them separated in any person's character, this
imposes a kind of violence on our imagination, and is disagreeable.

That faculty of the soul, which, of all others, is of the least
consequence to the character, and has the least virtue or vice in its
several degrees, at the same time, that it admits of a great variety of
degrees, is the memory. Unless it rise up to that stupendous height
as to surprize us, or sink so low as, in some measure, to affect the
judgment, we commonly take no notice of its variations, nor ever mention
them to the praise or dispraise of any person. It is so far from being a
virtue to have a good m