BOOK III PART II
sequence, when indulged. Vanity is rather to
be esteemed a social passion, and a bond of
union among men. Pity and love are to be con-
sidered in the same light. And as to envy and
revenge, though pernicious, they operate only
by intervals, and are directed against particular
persons, whom we consider as our superiors or
enemies. This avidity alone, of acquiring goods
and possessions for ourselves and our nearest
friends, is insatiable, perpetual, universal, and
directly destructive of society. There scarce is
any one, who is not actuated by it; and there
is no one, who has not reason to fear from it,
when it acts without any restraint, and gives
way to its first and most natural movements.
So that upon the whole, we are to esteem the
difficulties in the establishment of society, to be
greater or less, according to those we encounter
in regulating and restraining this passion.