BOOK III PART II
the most unwilling to part with; but can easily
live without possessions, which we never have
enjoyed, and are not accustomed to. It is ev-
ident, therefore, that men would easily acqui-
esce in this expedient, that every one continue
to enjoy what he is at present possessed of; and
this is the reason, why they would so naturally
agree in preferring it.^15
(^15) No questions in philosophy are more difficult, than
when a number of causes present themselves for the
same phaenomenon, to determine which is the princi-
pal and predominant. There seldom is any very precise
argument to fix our choice, and men must be contented
to be guided by a kind of taste or fancy, arising from
analogy, and a comparison of familiar instances. Thus,
in the present case, there are, no doubt, motives of pub-
lic interest for most of the rules, which determine prop-
erty; but still I suspect, that these rules are principally
fixed by the imagination, or the more frivolous proper-
ties of our thought and conception. I shall continue to