Eighteenth Century Collection Online Demo

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

be charitable from humanity, we ought not to be public spirited from the love of our country, nor generous and just from the love of mankind. The sole principle and motive of our conduct in the perform|ance of all those different duties, ought to be a sense that God has commanded us to perform them. I shall not at present take time to examine this opinion particularly; I shall only observe, that we should not have expected to have found it entertained by any sect, who professed themselves of a religion in which, as it is the first precept to love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our strength, so it is the second to love our neighbour as we love ourselves; and we love ourselves surely for our own sakes, and not merely because we are commanded to do so. That the sense of duty should be the sole prin|ciple of our conduct, is no where the pre|cept of Christianity; but that it should be the ruling and the governing one, as phi|losophy, and as, indeed, common sense di|rects. It may be a question, however, in what cases our actions ought to arise chief|ly or entirely from a sense of duty, or from
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Title
The theory of moral sentiments: By Adam Smith, ...
Author
Smith, Adam, 1723-1790.
Canvas
Page #311
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 12, 2025.
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