Eighteenth Century Collection Online Demo

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

When those authors, on the other hand, deduce from self-love the interest which we take in the welfare of society, and the esteem which upon that account we bestow upon virtue, they do not mean, that when we in this age applaud the virtue of Cato, and de|test the villainy of Catiline, our sentiments are influenced by the notion of any benefit we receive from the one or of any detriment we suffer from the other. It was not because the prosperity or subversion of society, in those remote ages and nations, was apprehended to have any influence upon our happiness or misery in the present times; that according to those philosophers, we esteemed the vir|tuous, and blamed the disorderly character. They never imagined that our sentiments were influenced by any benefit or damage which we supposed actually to redound to us from either; but by that which might have redounded to us, had we lived in those distant ages and countries; or by that which might still redound to us, if in our own times we should meet with characters of the same kind. The idea, in short, which those authors were groping about, but which they were never able to unfold distinctly, was that indirect sympathy which we feel with
/ 545
Pages

Actions

file_download Download Options Download this page Image - Page 495 Plain Text - Page 495

About this Item

Title
The theory of moral sentiments: By Adam Smith, ...
Author
Smith, Adam, 1723-1790.
Canvas
Page 495
Publication
London :: printed for A. Millar; and A. Kincaid and J. Bell, in Edinburgh,
1759.

Technical Details

Link to this Item
https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eccodemo/k111361.0001.001
Link to this scan
https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eccodemo/k111361.0001.001/488

Rights and Permissions

This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Eighteenth Century Collections Online Text Creation Partnership. Searching, reading, printing, or downloading ECCO-TCP texts is reserved for the authorized users of these project partner institutions. Permission must be granted for subsequent distribution, in print or electronically, of this text, in whole or in part. Please contact project staff at eccotcp-info.edu for further information or permissions.

Related Links

Manifest
https://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/api/manifest/eccodemo:k111361.0001.001

Cite this Item

Full citation
"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.
Do you have questions about this content? Need to report a problem? Please contact us.