These facts are
indeed frequently expressed in a language which involves the author's
peculiar theories; but they are always presented in the most happy and
beautiful light; and it is easy for an attentive reader, by stripping them
of hypothetical terms, to state them to himself with that logical
precision, which, in such very difficult disquisitions, can alone conduct
us with certainty to the truth.
"It is proper to observe, farther, that, with the theoretical doctrines of
the book, there are every where interwoven, with singular taste and
address, the purest and most elevated maxims concerning the practical
conduct of life; and that it abounds throughout with interesting and
instructive delineations of characters and manners. A considerable part of
it too is employed in collateral inquiries, which, upon every hypothesis
that can be formed concerning the foundation of morals, are of equal
importance. Of this kind is the speculation with respect to the influence
of fortune on our moral sentiments; and another speculation no less
valuable, with respect to the influence of custom and fashion on the same
part of our constitution.
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