Hume - Natural Virtue

Yes I know this is very early...but it is Parent's Weekend and that is usually when I do all my ethics reading. Instead of reading outside of Stalnaker under the trees, I had to read in my small little dorm room. No I am not bitter about this. Yay Hume!...

Natural virtues are virtues that “have no dependence on the artifice and contrivance of men”. Natural virtues always produce good, whereas some artificial virtues may actually hurt the public good. But, because most artificial values serve the public good, they have been shaped into moral virtues. And differing reactions, in response to these actions, appear because sympathy and comparison alter people’s decision making process. Although I understand this concept, I do not clearly grasp the conversation concerning the differences in generosity and hatred. Hume brings up the point that in some cases the absence of hatred reveals moral weakness. I feel like this is a central argument to his position, so I am frustrated that I do not understand it. I even read the annotations, but I still do not fully grasp what he is saying.
Hume tries to distinguish between natural abilities and natural virtues but came to the conclusion that both are sources of pleasure and esteem. These natural abilities (perseverance, wisdom, temperance) he states, are involuntary; therefore, they are natural.
Similarly, Hume connects physical assets such as beauty and strength to that of fortune (wealth and power). He once again tells how these both produce much of the same effect. They are useful to those who either posses them, or observe them. I find this interesting that he would add people who observe in the same category to those who possess. Do the onlookers really get the same amount of pleasure out of the asset as the owner does?
In conclusion to his book, Hume emphasizes how he believes that sympathy is the “chief source of moral distinctions” because it allows us to connect with and understand the public good.
I found A Treatise of Human Naure very difficult to read. I feel that if we would have spent a lot of time on just one section at a time, it would have been a lot easier to grasp. I feel like I have a very general sweeping knowledge of what Hume wished to say. I wish that there could have been more time devoted to specific passages.