Whenever we give up any source of personal happiness for the sake of the happiness of the community at large, the two kinds of happiness have to be weighed together in a balance.

But the latter, except in very few cases, is at a great disadvantage: only a part of it, so to speak, can be got into the scale.

What adds to my sense of pleasure in the proportion of a million pounds may be only taxing society in the proportion of half a farthing a head.
Unselfishness with regard to society is thus essentially a different thing from unselfishness with regard to an individual.

In the latter case the things to be weighed together are commensurate: not so is the former.

In the latter case, as we have seen, an impassioned self-devotion may be at times produced by the sudden presentation to a man of two extreme alternatives; but in the former case such alternatives are not presentable.