The highest virtue is not without reward; it has a satisfaction of its own, the pleasure of contemplating one's own worth.

But is there no genuine self-denial?
Mandeville answers by a distinction: mortifying one passion to gratify another is very common, but this not self-denial; self-inflicted pain without any recompense--where is that to be found?
'Charity is that virtue by which part of that sincere love we have for ourselves is transferred pure and unmixed to others (not friends or relatives), whom we have no obligation to, nor hope or expect anything-from.' The counterfeit of true charity is _pity_ or _compassion_, which is a fellow-feeling for the sufferings of others.
Pity is as much a frailty of our nature as anger, pride, or fear.

The weakest minds (_e.g._, women and children) have generally the greatest share of it.

It is excited through the eye or the ear; when the suffering does not strike our senses, the feeling is weak, and hardly more than an imitation of pity.

Pity, since it seeks rather our own relief from a painful sight, than the good of others, must be curbed and controlled in order to produce any benefit to society.
Mandeville draws a nice distinction between self-love, and, what he calls, _self-liking_.