Ask a man
WHY HE USES EXERCISE; he will answer, BECAUSE HE DESIRES TO KEEP
HIS HEALTH. If you then enquire, WHY HE DESIRES HEALTH, he will
readily reply, BECAUSE SICKNESS IS PAINFUL. If you push your
enquiries farther, and desire a reason WHY HE HATES PAIN, it is
impossible he can ever give any. This is an ultimate end, and is
never referred to any other object.
Perhaps to your second question, WHY HE DESIRES HEALTH, he may
also reply, that IT IS NECESSARY FOR THE EXERCISE OF HIS CALLING.
If you ask, WHY HE IS ANXIOUS ON THAT HEAD, he will answer,
BECAUSE HE DESIRES TO GET MONEY. If you demand WHY? IT IS THE
INSTRUMENT OF PLEASURE, says he. And beyond this it is an
absurdity to ask for a reason. It is impossible there can be a
progress
IN INFINITUM; and that one thing can always be a reason why
another is desired. Something must be desirable on its own
account, and because of its immediate accord or agreement with
human sentiment and affection.
Now as virtue is an end, and is desirable on its own account,
without fee and reward, merely for the immediate satisfaction
which it conveys; it is requisite that there should be some
sentiment which it touches, some internal taste or feeling, or
whatever you may please to call it, which distinguishes moral
good and evil, and which embraces the one and rejects the other.
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