THE THEORY OF MORAL SENTIMENTS; OR, AN ESSAY TOWARDS AN ANALYSIS OF THE PRINCIPLES BY WHICH MEN To which is added, A Dissertation ON THE ORIGIN OF LANGUAGES. LIBRARY ADVERTISEMENT. SINCE the first publication of the THEORY of MORAL SENTIMENTS, which was so long ago as the beginning of the year 1759, several corrections, and a good many illustrations of the doctrines contained in it, have occurred to me. But the various occupations in which the different accidents of my life necessarily involved me, have till now prevented me from revising this work with the care and attention which I always intended. The reader will find the principal alterations which I have made in this new edition, in the last chap. ter of the third section of Part First; and in the four first chapters of Part Third. Part Sixth, as it stands in this new edition, is altogether new. In Part Seventh, I have brought together the greater part of the different passages concerning the Stoical Philosophy, which, in the former editions, had been scattered about in different parts of the work. I have likewise endeavoured to explain more fully, and examine more distinctly, some of the doctrines of that famous sect. In the fourth and last section of the same Part, I have thrown together a few additional observations concerning the duty and principle of veracity. There are, besides, in other parts of the work, a few other alterations and corrections of no great moment. In the last paragraph of the first edition of the present work, I said that I should in another discourse endeavour to give an account of the general principles of law and government, and of the dif ferent revolutions which they had undergone in the different ages and periods of society; not only in what concerns justice, but in what concerns police, revenue and arms, and whatever else is the object of law. In the Inquiry concerning the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, I have partly executed this promise; at least so far as concerns police, revenue, and arms. What remains, the Theory of Jurisprudence, which I have long projected, I have hitherto been hindered from executing, by the same occupations which had till now prevented me from revising the present work. Though my very advanced age leaves me, I acknowledge, very little expectation of ever being able to execute this great work to my own satisfaction; yet as I have not altogether abandoned the design, and as I wish still to continue under the obligation of doing what I can, I have allowed the paragraph to remain as it was published more than thirty years ago, when I entertained no doubt of being able to execute every thing which it announced. CONTENTS. PART FIRST. CHAPTER III. Of the manner in which we judge of the Propriety or Im- propriety of the Affections of other Men, by their Concord or Dissonance CHAPTER I.-Of the Passions which take their Origin from the Body.........25 CHAPTER II.-Of those Passions which take their Origin from a particular Of the Effects of Prosperity and Adversity upon the Judgment of Mankind with regard to the Propriety of Action; and why it is more easy to obtain their Approbation in the one State than in the CHAPTER I.-That though our Sympathy with Sorrow is generally a more lively sensation than our Sympathy with Joy, it commonly falls much more short of the violence of what is naturally felt by the person princi- CHAPTER II.-Of the Origin of Ambition, and of the Distinction of Ranks...51 CHAPTER III.-Of the Corruption of our Moral Sentiments, which is occasioned by this disposition to admire the rich and the great, and to despise or neglect persons of poor and mean condition..............................6 |