4PPENDIX. 71 
“ that fach a misfortune naturally excites fuch a degree of for- 
“ row; and we know, that if we took time to examine his fi- 
“ tuation fully and in all its parts, we fhould, without doubt, 
“ moft fincerely fympathize with him. It is upon the confci- 
“ oufnefs of this conditional fympathy that our approbation 
“ of his forrow is founded, even in thofe cafes in which that 
“ fympathy does not actually take place; and the general rules 
“ derived from our preceding experience of what our fenti- 
* ments would commonly correfpond with, correét upon this, 
“as upon many other occafions, the impropriety of our prefent 
“* emotions.” 
By the propriety therefore of any affection or paflion exhi- 
bited by another perfon, is to be underftood its fuitablenefs to 
the obje&t which excites it. Of this fuitablenefs I can judge 
only from the coincidence of the affeCtion with that which I 
feel, when I conceive myfelf in the fame circumftances; and 
the perception of this coincidence is the foundation of the fen- 
timent of moral approbation. 
4. ALTHOUGH, when we attend to the fituation of another 
perfon, and conceive ourfelves to be placed in his circumftances, 
an emotion of the fame kind with that which he feels, natu- 
rally arifes in our own mind, yet this fympathetic emotion 
bears but a very fmall proportion, in point of degree, to what 
is felt by the perfon principally concerned. In order, there- 
fore, to obtain the pleafure of mutual fympathy, nature teaches 
the fpectator to ftrive as much as he can to-raife his emotion to 
a level with that which the objeé&t would really produce ; and, 
on the other hand, fhe teaches the perfon whofe paflion this ob- 
ject has excited, to bring it down, as muchas he can, to a level 
with that of the fpeétator. 
's. Upon thefe two different efforts are founded two different 
fets of virtues. Upon the effort of the fpetator to enter into 
the fituation of the perfon principally concerned, and to raife 
his fympathetic emotions to a level with the emotions of the 
actor, 
Account of 
Dr Smith, 
