Account of’ 
Dr Smith, 
76 HISTORY of the SOCIETY. 
Wuew, upon any occafion, I am led by the violence of paf- 
fion to overlook thefe confiderations, and, in the cafe of a com- 
petition of interefts, to act according to my own feelings, and 
not according to thofe of impartial fpectators, I never fail to: 
incur the punifhment of remorfe. When my paffion is. grati-- 
fied, and I begin to reflect coolly on my condué, I. can. no» 
longer enter into the motives from which it proceeded ;. it ap-- 
pears as improper to. me as to the reft of the world; I lament 
the effects it has produced ; 1 pity the unhappy fufferer whom 
I have injured ; and I feel myfelf a juft object of indignation 
- to mankind. ‘“ Such, fays Mr Smiru, is the nature of that 
“‘ fentiment which is properly called remorfe. It is made up: 
of {hame from the fenfe of the impropriety of paft condu&; 
of grief for the effects of it; of pity for thofe who fuffer by. 
it; and of the dread and terror of punifhment from the- 
confcioufnefs of the juftly provoked refentment of all rae. 
tional creatures.” 
Tue oppofite behaviour of him who, from proper motives, 
has performed a generous action, infpires, in a fimilar manner, 
the oppofite fentiment of confcious merit, or of deferved re- 
ward. 
Tue foregoing obfervations contain a general fummary of 
Mr SmitTu’s principles with refpect to the origin of our moral 
fentiments, in fo far at leaft as they relate to. the conduct of 
others. He acknowledges, at the fame time, that the fenti- 
ments of which we are confcious, on particular occafions, do 
not always coincide with thefe principles; and that they are 
frequently modified by other confiderations very different from 
the propriety or impropriety of the affections of the agent, and 
alfo from the beneficial or hurtful tendency of thefe affections. 
The good or the bad confequences which accidentally follow 
from an action, and which, as they do not depend on the 
agent, ought undoubtedly, in point of juftice, to have no in- 
fluence on our opinion, either of the propriety or the merit 
of 
