Eighteenth Century Collection Online Demo

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

that nature seems to have established for things of that kind; so in each rank, or, if I may say so, in each species of men, we are particularly pleased, if they have nei|ther too much, nor too little of the charac|ter which usually accompanies their parti|cular condition and situation. A man, we say, should look like his trade and profes|sion; yet the pedantry of every profession is disagreeable. The different periods of life have, for the same reason, different man|ners assigned to them. We expect in old age, that gravity and sedateness which its in|firmities, its long experience, and its wo•••• out sensibility seem to render both natural and respectable; and we lay our account to find in youth that sensibility, that gaiety and sprightly vivacity which experience teaches us to expect from the lively impressions that all interesting objects are apt to make upon the tender and unpracticed senses of that early period of life. Each of those two ages, however, may easily have too much of the peculiarities which belong to it. The flirting levity of youth, and the immovable insensibility of old age, are equally disagreea|ble. The young, according to the common saying, are most agreeable when in their be|haviour
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Title
The theory of moral sentiments: By Adam Smith, ...
Author
Smith, Adam, 1723-1790.
Canvas
Page 390
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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