Eighteenth Century Collection Online Demo

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

in the character and behaviour of one who is thus betrayed into vice, by a wrong sense of duty, or by what is called an erroneous conscience. How fatally so|ever he may be misled by it, he is still, with the generous and humane, more the object of commiseration than of hatred or resentment. They lament the weak|ness of human nature, which exposes us to such unhappy delusions, even while we are most sincerely labouring after perfec|tion, and endeavouring to act according to the best principle which can possibly direct us. False notions of religion are almost the only causes which can occasion any very gross perversion of our natural sentiments in this way; and that prin|ciple which gives the greatest authority to the rules of duty, is alone capable of distorting our ideas of them in any con|siderable degree. In all other cases com|mon sense is sufficient to direct us, if not to the most exquisite propriety of co••|duct, yet to something which is not very far from it; and provided we are in ear|nest desirous to do well, our behaviour will always, upon the whole, be praise-worthy. That to obey the will of the
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Title
The theory of moral sentiments: By Adam Smith, ...
Author
Smith, Adam, 1723-1790.
Canvas
Page 312
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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