181

8

be distinction between one motive and another.

You see the similarity between the two arguments both undertake to refute the distinction of good and bad, the one in reference to reasoning, the other in reference to endeavor.
Each does this by pronouncing something unthinkable; the one that it is unthinkable that a man should draw a conclusion for any other reason than that the reasoning seems good to him, the other that a man should desire anything from any other motive than that the object desired seems agreeable to him.

Both arguments are open to an objection which I do not care to raise, because on some forms they evade it.
What I shall say is that it is so far from being true that every desire must necessarily desire its own gratification that it is quite impossible that any desire should desire its own gratification; and that