Two dissertations, I. Concerning the end for which God created the world. II. The…

So with respect to natural gratitude, tho' there may be no virtue merely in loving them that love us, yet the contrary may be an evidence of a great degree of depravity, as it may argue a higher degree of selfishness, so that a man is come to look upon himself as all, and others as nothing, and so their respect and kindness as nothing. Thus an increase of pride diminishes gratitude.—So does sensuality, or the increase of sensual appetites, & coming more and more under the power and impression of sensible objects, tends by degrees to make the mind insensible to any thing else; and those appetites take up the whole soul; and through' habit and custom the water is all drawn out of other channels, in which it naturally flows, and is all carried as it were into one channel.

So with respect to natural gratitude, tho' there may be no virtue meerly in loving them that love us, yet the contrary may be an evidence of a great degree of depravity, as it may argue a higher degree of selfishness, so that a man is come to look upon himself as all, and others as nothing, and so their respect and kindness as nothing. Thus an increase of pride diminishes gratitude.—So does sensuality, or the increase of sensual appetites, & coming more and more under the power and impression of sensible objects, tends by degrees to make the mind insensible to any thing else; and those appetites take up the whole soul; and thro' habit and custom the water is all drawn out of other channels, in which it naturally flows, and is all carried as it were into one channel.

IN like manner natural affection, and natural pity, tho' not of the nature of virtue, yet may be diminished greatly by the increase of those two principles of pride and sensuality, and as the consequence of this, being habitually disposed to envy, malice, &c. These lusts when they prevail to a high degree may overcome and diminish the exercise of those natural principles: even as they often overcome and diminish common prudence in a man, as to seeking his own private interest, in point of health, wealth, or honour, and yet no one will think it proves that a man's being cunning, in seeking his own personal and temporal interest has any thing of the nature and essence of true virtue.