Eighteenth Century Collection Online Demo

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

But still there is some fault in having made them. It is at least a departure from the highest and noblest maxims of magnanimity and ho|nour. A brave man ought to die, rather than make a promise which he can neither keep without folly nor violate without Ignominy. For some degree of ignominy always attends a situation of this kind. Treachery and false|hood, are vices so dangerous, so dreadful, and at the same time, such as may so easily, and, upon many occasions, so safely be indulg|ed, that we are more jealous of them than of almost any other. Our imagination there|fore attaches the idea of shame to all violati|ons of faith, in every circumstance and in every situation. They resemble, in this respect, the violations of chastity in the fair sex, a virtue of which, for the like reasons, we are excessively jealous; and our sentiments are not more delicate with regard to the one, than with regard to the other. Breach of chasti|ty dishonours irretriveably. No circumstances, no sollicitation can excuse it; no sorrow, no repentance atone for it. We are so nice in this respect that even a rape dishonours, and the innocence of the mind cannot, in our imagination, wash out the pollution of the body. It is the same case with the violation
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Title
The theory of moral sentiments: By Adam Smith, ...
Author
Smith, Adam, 1723-1790.
Canvas
Page 533
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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