Account of ~ 
Dr Smith, 
66 HISTORY of the SOCIETY. 
and falfehood; or by a peculiar power of perception, which 
is pleafed with one fet of qualities, and di/pleafed with another ? 
Secondly, What is the proper obje@t of moral approbation ; or, 
in other words, what is the common quality or qualities belong- 
ing to all the different modes of virtue? Is it benevolence; or 
a rational felf-love ; or a difpofition to a& fuitably to the dif- 
ferent relations in which we are placed? Thefe two queftions 
feem to exhauft the whole theory of morals. The feope of the 
one is to afcertain the origin of our moral ideas; that of the 
other, to refer the phenomena of moral perception to their moft 
fimple and general laws. 
Tue practical doétrines of morality comprehend all thofe 
rules of conduct which profefs to point out the proper ends 
of human purfuit, and the moft effectual means of attain- 
ing them; to which we may add all thofe literary compofi- 
tions, whatever be their particular form, which have for their 
aim to fortify and animate our good difpofitions, by delineations 
of the beauty, of the dignity, or of the utility of Virtue. 
I sHALL not enquire at prefent into the juftnefs of this divi- 
fion. I fhall only obferve, that the words Theory and Prattice 
are not, in this inftance, employed in their ufual acceptations. 
The theory of morals does not bear, for example, the fame re- 
lation to the practice of morals, that the theory of geometry 
bears to practical geometry. In this laft f{cience, all the pra¢ti- 
cal rules are founded on theoretical principles previoufly efta- 
blifhed: But in the former fcience, the praiical rules are obvi- 
ous to the capacities of all mankind; the theoretical princi- 
ples form one of the moft difficult fubje€ts of difcuflion that 
have ever exercifed the ingenuity of metaphyficians. 
Iw illuftrating the dodtrines of practical morality, (if we 
make allowance for fome unfortunate prejudices produced or 
encouraged by violent and oppreflive fy{tems of policy), the an- 
cients feem to have availed themfelves of every light furnifhed 
by nature to human reafon; and indeed thofe writers who, in 
later 
