Eighteenth Century Collection Online Demo

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

conquest of a whole kingdom for the state which he serves. But when he compares those two objects with one another, he does not view them in the light, in which they naturally appear to himself, but in that, in which they appear to the nation he fights for. To them the success of the war is of the highest importance; the life of a private person of scarce any consequence. When he puts himself in their situation, he imme|diately feels that he cannot be too prodigal of his blood, if by shedding it he can pro|mote so valuable a purpose. In thus thwart|••ng from a sense of duty and propriety, the strongest of all natural propensities, consists ••he heroism of his conduct. There is many ••n honest Englishman, who in his private station would be more seriously disturbed by the ••oss of a guinea than by the national loss of Minorca, who yet, had it been in his power to defend that fortress, would have sacrificed his ••ife a thousand times, rather than, through his fault, have let it fall into the hands of the enemy. When the first Brutus led forth his own sons to a capital punishment, because ••hey had conspired against the rising liberty of Rome, he sacrificed what, if he had con|••ulted his own breast only, would appear to
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Title
The theory of moral sentiments: By Adam Smith, ...
Author
Smith, Adam, 1723-1790.
Canvas
Page 367
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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