Eighteenth Century Collection Online Demo

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

of taste to music, to poetry, to architec|ture. The modes of dress and furniture are continually changing, and that fashion ap|pearing ridiculous to-day which was admir|ed five years ago, we are experimentally con|vinced that it owed its vogue chiefly or en|tirely to custom and fashion. Cloaths and furniture are not made of very durable ma|terials. A well fancied coat is done in a twelve month, and cannot continue longer to propagate, as the fashion, that form ac|cording to which it was made. The modes of furniture change less rapidly than those of dress; because furniture is commonly more durable, In five, or six years, however, it generally undergoes an entire revolution, and every man in his own time sees the fashion in this respect change many different ways. The productions of the other arts are much more lasting, and, when happily imagined, may continue to propagate the fashion of their make for a much longer time. A well contrived building may en|dure many centuries: a beautiful air may be delivered down by a sort of tradition, thro' many successive generations: A well written poem may last as long as the world, and all of them continue for ages together, to
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Title
The theory of moral sentiments: By Adam Smith, ...
Author
Smith, Adam, 1723-1790.
Canvas
Page 374
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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