Eighteenth Century Collection Online Demo

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

to be pleased when we are able to sympa|thize with him, and to be hurt when we are unable to do so. We run not only to congratulate the successful, but to con|dole with the afflicted; and the pleasure which we find in conversing with a man whom we can entirely sympathise with in all his passions, seems to do more than compensate the painfulness of that sorrow with which the view of his situa|tion affects us. On the contrary, it is al|ways disagreeable to feel that we cannot sympathize with him, and instead of be|ing pleased with this exemption from sym|pathetic pain, it hurts us to find that we cannot share his uneasiness. If we hear a person loudly lamenting his misfortunes, which, however, upon bringing the case home to ourselves, we feel, can produce no such violent effect upon us, we are shocked at his grief; and, because we can|not enter into it, call it pusillanimity and weakness. It gives us the spleen, on the other hand, to see another too happy or too much elevated, as we call it, with any little piece of good fortune. We are disobliged even with his joy, and, because we cannot go along with it, call it levity
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Title
The theory of moral sentiments: By Adam Smith, ...
Author
Smith, Adam, 1723-1790.
Canvas
Page 20
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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