BOOK III PART III
we are concerned, who receives benefit from
justice, but the whole society alike. On the con-
trary, every particular act of generosity, or relief
of the industrious and indigent, is beneficial;
and is beneficial to a particular person, who is
not undeserving of it. It is more natural, there-
fore, to think, that the tendencies of the latter
virtue will affect our sentiments, and command
our approbation, than those of the former; and
therefore, since we find, that the approbation
of the former arises from their tendencies, we
may ascribe, with better reason, the same cause
to the approbation of the latter. In any number
of similar effects, if a cause can be discovered
for one, we ought to extend that cause to all
the other effects, which can be accounted for by
it: But much more, if these other effects be at-
tended with peculiar circumstances, which fa-
cilitate the operation of that cause.