Eighteenth Century Collection Online Demo

The theory of moral sentiments: By Adam Smith, ...

of mankind, be, as we have been endeavouring to show, what chiefly re|commends to us one condition above ano|ther, this may be equally attained in them all. The noblest propriety of conduct may be supported in adversity, as well as in prosperity; and tho' it is somewhat more difficult in the first, it is upon that very account more admirable. Perils and misfortunes are not only the proper school of heroism, they are the only proper the|atre which can exhibit its virtue to advan|tage, and draw upon it the full applause of the world. The man, whose whole life has been one even and uninterrupted course of prosperity, who never braved any dan|ger, who never encountered any difficulty, who never surmounted any distress, can excite but an inferior degree of admira|tion. When poets and romance-writers endeavour to invent a train of adventures, which shall give the greatest lustre to those characters for whom they mean to interest ••s, they are all of a different kind. They ••re rapid and sudden changes of fortune, ••ituations the most apt to drive those who ••re in them to frenzy and distraction, or ••o abject despair; but in which their he|roes
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Title
The theory of moral sentiments: By Adam Smith, ...
Author
Smith, Adam, 1723-1790.
Canvas
Page 129
Publication
London :: printed for A. Millar; and A. Kincaid and J. Bell, in Edinburgh,
1759.

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"The theory of moral sentiments: By Adam Smith, ..." In the digital collection Eighteenth Century Collection Online Demo. https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eccodemo/k111361.0001.001. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed June 25, 2025.
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