The final sentence upon actions, whereby we pronounce them praiseworthy or blameable, may depend on the feelings; while a process of the understanding may be requisite to make nice distinctions, examine complicated relations, and ascertain matters of fact.
It is not the author's intention, however, to pursue the subject in the form of adjudicating between these two principles, but to follow what he deems a simpler method--to analyze that complication of mental qualities, called PERSONAL MERIT: to ascertain the attributes or qualities that render a man an object of esteem and affection, or of hatred and contempt.

This is a question of fact, and not of abstract science; and should be determined, as similar questions are, in the modern physics, by following the experimental method, and drawing general maxims from a comparison of particular instances.
Section II.

is OF BENEVOLENCE.
His first remark on Benevolence is, that it is identified in all countries with the highest merits that human nature is capable of attaining to.
This prepares the way for the farther observation, that in setting forth the praises of a humane, beneficent man, the one circumstance that never fails to be insisted on is the happiness to society arising through his good offices.

Like the sun, an inferior minister of providence, he cheers, invigorates, and sustains the surrounding world.
May we not therefore conclude that the UTILITY resulting from social virtues, forms, at least, a _part_ of their merit, and is one source of the approbation paid to them.

He illustrates this by a number of interesting examples, and defers the enquiry--_how large_ a part of the social virtues depend on utility, and for what reason we are so much affected by it.
Section III.