Virtue is Like a Fixed Star
What is virtue? According to Hume in this simile, it is not a stationary concept, but is at all times dependent upon the changes in perspective afforded by the movement of one in relation to its consideration.
“Virtue, placed at such a distance, is like a fixed star, which, though to the eye of reason it may appear as luminous as the sun in his meridian, is so infinitely removed as to affect the senses, neither with light nor heat.”
Cultivating Time
Hume turns to metaphorical language in his consideration of what is the most valuable commodity available to a mortal spirit like man:
“A man's time, when well husbanded, is like a cultivated field, of which a few acres produce more of what is useful to life, than extensive provinces, even of the richest soil, when over-run with weeds and brambles.”
The Wall and the Vault
Hume links collective expressions of satisfaction with individual demonstrations of virtue in a metaphorical image of the civilizing effect of progress centered upon what seems a paradox:
“The happiness and prosperity of mankind, arising from the social virtue of benevolence and its subdivisions, may be compared to a wall, built by many hands, which still rises by each stone that is heaped upon it, and receives increase proportional to the diligence and care of each workman.”
A wall may seem an odd choice of symbol to which happiness and prosperity should be compared, but the real point he is making here is that happiness arises from the virtue of benevolent action on the part of the individual rather than coercion under the virtue of justice. The happiness built under those conditions does not rise like a wall, but instead:
“may be compared to the building of a vault, where each individual stone would, of itself, fall to the ground.”
Take That, Ayn Rand
A few centuries before Ayn Rand would corrupt generations with her snake oil salesmanship of selfishness as the guiding virtue of mankind, Hume had already refuted every one of her arguments:
“There is a principle, supposed to prevail among many, which is utterly incompatible with all virtue or moral sentiment; and as it can proceed from nothing but the most depraved disposition, so in its turn it tends still further to encourage that depravity. This principle is, that all BENEVOLENCE is mere hypocrisy, friendship a cheat, public spirit a farce, fidelity a snare to procure trust and confidence; and that while all of us, at bottom, pursue only our private interest, we wear these fair disguises, in order to put others off their guard, and expose them the more to our wiles and machinations. What heart one must be possessed of who possesses such principles, and who feels no internal sentiment that belies so pernicious a theory, it is easy to imagine”
The Eye of Polyphemus
Hume argues that it is not valor which discretion is the better part of, but any strategic action. He turns his own eye back to ancient myth to seek a identifying metaphor for how all other strong qualities one possesses are at the mercy of the value of strength of one’s discretion:
“The quality, the most necessary for the execution of any useful enterprise, is discretion; by which we carry on a safe intercourse with others, give due attention to our own and to their character, weigh each circumstance of the business which we undertake, and employ the surest and safest means for the attainment of any end or purpose. The greatest parts without it, as observed by an elegant writer, may be fatal to their owner; as Polyphemus, deprived of his eye, was only the more exposed, on account of his enormous strength and stature.”
