 One might hold that Hutcheson, by the time he wrote the System, had changed his view. Indeed, the Essay’s first edition was published in 1728, and the System was a much later book, left unpublished at the time of his death. A standard view is that Hutcheson’s thinking changed substantially once we reach the System (Carey 2005: v–vi; Scott 1900: 214). However, this explanation is somewhat unsatisfactory, for at least one reason. Hutcheson was a perennial tinkerer. The Essay underwent no fewer than three separate revised editions during Hutcheson’s lifetime. The final, third, edition of the Essay was completed and published in 1742. But the System, while it was not published until after Hutcheson’s death in 1755, was substantially complete by 1737, five years earlier than the final revised edition of the Essay. And hence were Hutcheson to have changed his view concerning the nature of the property of goodness, one would certainly expect to see this change reflected in the text of the Essay, which was revised as of 1742. But one doesn’t. (This is especially striking given that Hutcheson was not shy about making very substantive changes in later editions of his work; this is especially true of the four editions of the Inquiry.)