Eighteenth Century Collection Online Demo

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

ought in all countries to be capital. The attempt to commit smaller crimes is almost always punished very lightly, and some|times is not punished at all. The thief, whose hand has been caught in his neigh|bour's pocket before he had taken any thing out of it, is punished with ignominy only. If he had got time to take away an handkerchief, he would have been put to death. The house-breaker, who has been found setting a ladder to his neighbour's window, but had not got into it, is not exposed to the capital punishment. The at|tempt to ravish is not punished as a rape. The attempt to seduce a married woman is not punished at all, tho' seduction is pu|nished severely. Our resentment against the person who only attempted to do a mis|chief is seldom so strong as to bear us out in inflicting the same punishment upon him which we should have thought due if he had actually done it. In the one case, the joy of our deliverance alleviates our sense of the atrocity of his conduct; in the other, the grief for our misfortune in|creases it. His real demerit, however, is undoubtedly the same in both cases, since his intentions were equally criminal; and
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Title
The theory of moral sentiments: By Adam Smith, ...
Author
Smith, Adam, 1723-1790.
Canvas
Page 227
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 13, 2025.
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