BOOK III PART I
founding the human mind by disease or mad-
ness, it is impossible to extirpate and destroy
them.
But nature may also be opposed to artifice,
as well as to what is rare and unusual; and in
this sense it may be disputed, whether the no-
tions of virtue be natural or not. We readily for-
get, that the designs, and projects, and views
of men are principles as necessary in their op-
eration as heat and cold, moist and dry: But
taking them to be free and entirely our own, it
is usual for us to set them in opposition to the
other principles of nature should it, therefore,
be demanded, whether the sense of virtue be
natural or artificial, I am of opinion, that it is
impossible for me at present to give any precise
answer to this question. Perhaps it will appear
afterwards, that our sense of some virtues is ar-