Eighteenth Century Collection Online Demo

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

though he might deserve all the approba|tion which is due to a magnanimous and great design, he still wanted the actual me|rit of having performed a great action. To take the management of any affair of public concern from the man who has al|most brought it to a conclusion, is regard|ed as the most invidious injustice. As he had done so much, he should, we think, have been allowed to acquire the compleat merit of putting an end to it. It was ob|jected to Pompey, that he came in upon the victories of Lucullus, and gathered those laurels which were due to the fortune and valour of another. The glory of Lu|cullus, it seems, was less compleat even in the opinion of his own friends, when he was not permitted to finish that conquest which his conduct and courage had put in the power of almost any man to finish. It mortifies an architect when his plans are either not executed at all, or when they are so far altered as to spoil the effect of the building. The plan, however, is all that depends upon the architect. The whole of his genius is, to good judges, as compleatly discovered in that as in the ac|tual execution. But a plan does not, even
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Title
The theory of moral sentiments: By Adam Smith, ...
Author
Smith, Adam, 1723-1790.
Canvas
Page 223
Publication
London :: printed for A. Millar; and A. Kincaid and J. Bell, in Edinburgh,
1759.

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https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eccodemo/k111361.0001.001
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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 12, 2025.
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