BOOK III PART II
not founded on our ideas, but on our impres-
sions.
Thirdly, we may farther confirm the fore-
going proposition,that those impressions, which
give rise to this sense of justice, are not natural
to the mind of man, but arise from artifice and
human conventions. For since any consider-
able alteration of temper and circumstances de-
stroys equally justice and injustice; and since
such an alteration has an effect only by chang-
ing our own and the publick interest; it fol-
lows, that the first establishment of the rules
of justice depends on these different interests.
But if men pursued the publick interest natu-
rally, and with a hearty affection, they would
never have dreamed of restraining each other
by these rules; and if they pursued their own
interest, without any precaution, they would