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AN ESSAY

ON THE

PRINCIPLES OF HUMAN

ACTION:

BEING AN ARGUMENT IN FAVOUR OF

THE NATURAL DISINTERESTEDNESS

OF THE HUMAN MIND.

TO WHICH ARE ADDED,

SOME REMARKS ON THE SYSTEMS OR

HARTLEY AND HELVETIUS,

LONDON:

PRINTID FOR J. JOHNSON, No. 72, st. PAOL'

CHURCH-YARD

1805.

AN. ARGUMENT

IN DEFENCE OF THE

NATURAL DISINTERESTEDNESS

OF THE HUMAN MIND,

IT

T is the design of the following Essay to shew that the human mind is naturally disinterested, or that it is naturally interested in the welfare of others in the same way, and from the same direct motives, by which we are impelled to the pursuit of our own interest.

The objects in which the mind is interested may be either past or present, or future. These last alone can be the objects of rational or voluntary pursuit; for neither the past, nor present can be altered for the better, or worse by any

efforts of the will, It is only from the in

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