"But to make use of the allusion of a celebrated French author, the judgment may be compared to a clock or watch, where the most ordinary machine is sufficient to tell the hours; but the most elaborate alone can point out the minutes and seconds, and distinguish the smallest differences of time."
Of the Delicacy of Taste and Passion [from Essays Moral and Political]
Hume, David. Essays: Moral, Political, and Literary. Ed. by Eugene F. Miller. (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, Inc., 1987). &lt;<a href="http://www.econlib.org/library/LFBooks/Hume/hmMPL1.html">Link to OLL</a>&gt;