ntient history, as
one of the most singular that is any where to be met.

"Here," says he, "they are not philosophers, to whom it is easy in
their schools to establish the finest maxims and most sublime rules of
morality, who decide that interest ought never to prevail above justice.
It is a whole people interested in the proposal which is made to
them, who consider it as of importance to the public good, and who
notwithstanding reject it unanimously, and without hesitation, merely
because it is contrary to justice."

For my part I see nothing so extraordinary in this proceeding of the
Athenians. The same reasons, which render it so easy for philosophers to
establish these sublime maxims, tend, in part, to diminish the merit
of such a conduct in that people. Philosophers never ballance betwixt
profit and honesty, because their decisions are general, and neither
their passions nor imaginations are interested in the objects. And
though in the present case the advantage was immediate to the Athenians,
yet as it was known only under the general notion of advantage,
without being conceived by any particular idea, it must have had a
less considerable influence on their imaginations, and have been a
less violent temptation, than if they had been acquainted with all
its circumstances: Otherwise it is difficult to conceive, that a whole
people, unjust and violent as men commonly are, should so unanimously
have adhered to justice, and rejected any considerable advantage.

Any satisfaction, which we lately enjoyed, and of which the memory is
fresh and recent, operates on the will with more violence, than another
of which the traces are decayed, and almost obliterated. From whence
does this proceed, but that the memory in the first case assists the
fancy and gives an additional force and vigour to its conceptions?
The image of the past pleasure being strong and violent, bestows these
qualities on the idea of the future pleasure, which is connected with it
by the relation of resemblance.

A pleasure, which is suitable to the way of life, in which we are
engaged, excites more our desires and appetites than another, which
is foreign to it. This phaenomenon may be explained from the same
principle.

Nothing is more capable of infusing any passion into the mind, than
eloquence, by which objects are represented in their strongest and most
lively colours. We may of ourselves acknowledge, that such an object
is valuable, and such ano