70 HISTORT of the SOCIETT. 



D- C s° un th° f " ^ ie emot i° ns or * the by-ftander always correfpond to what, 



" by bringing the cafe home to himfelf, he imagines mould be 

 " the fentiments of the fufferer." 



To this principle of our nature which leads us to enter into 

 the fituations of other men, and to partake with them in the 

 paffions which thefe fituations have a tendency to excite, Mr 

 Smith gives the name of fympathy or fellow-feeling, which two 

 words he employs as fynonymous. Upon fome occasions, he 

 acknowledges, that fympathy arifes merely from the view of a 

 certain emotion in another perfon ; but in general it arifes, not 

 fo much from the view of the emotion, as from that of the fi- 

 tuation which excites it. 



2. A sympathy or fellow-feeling between different perfons 

 is always agreeable to both. When I am in a fituation which 

 excites any paffion, it is pleafant to me to know, that the fpec- 

 tators of my fituation enter with me into all its various circum- 

 ftances, and are affected with 'them in the fame manner as I 

 am myfelf. On the other hand, it is pleafant to the fpectator 

 to obferve this correfpondence of his emotions with mine. 



3. When the fpectator of another man's fituation, upon 

 bringing home to himfelf all its various circumftances, feels 

 himfelf affected in the fame manner with the perfon principally 

 concerned, he approves of the affection or paffion of this per- 

 fon as juft and proper and fuitable to its object. The excep- 

 tions which occur to this obfervation are, according to Mr 

 Smith, only apparent. " A flranger, for example, palTes by 

 " us in the ftreet with all the marks of the deepeft affliction ; 

 " and we are immediately told, that he has juft received the 

 " news of the death of his father. It is impoffible that, in this 

 " cafe, we fhould not approve of his grief; yet it may often 

 " happen, without any defect of humanity on our part, that, 

 " fo far from entering into the violence of his forrow. we 

 " fhould fcarce conceive the firft movements of concern upon 

 i( his account. We have learned, however, from experience, 



3 • " that 



