APPENDIX. 75 



iicial tendency, proceeding from proper motives ; the only ac- Account of 

 tions which feem to deferve punifhment, are adions of a hurt- 

 ful tendency, proceeding from improper motives. A mere 

 want of beneficence expofes to no punifhment ; becaufe the 

 mere want of beneficence tends to do no real pofitive evil. A 

 man, on the other hand, who is barely innocent, and contents 

 himfelf with obferving ftriclly the laws of juftice with refpedl 

 to others, can merit only that his neighbours, in their turn, 

 mould obferve religioufly the fame laws with refpecl to him. 



These obfervations lead Mr Smith to anticipate a little the 

 fubject of the fecond great divifion of his work, by a fhort 

 enquiry into the origin of our fenfe of juftice as applicable to 

 our own- conducl ; and alfo of our fentiments of remorfe, and of 

 good defert. 



The origin of our fenfe of juftice, as well as of all our » 



other moral fentiments, he accounts for by means of the prin- 

 ciple of fympathy. When I attend only to the feelings of my 

 own breaft, my own happinefs appears to me of far greater 

 confequence than that of all the world befides. But I am con- 

 fcious, that in this exceflive preference, other men cannot pof- 

 fibly fympathize with me, and that to them I appear only one 

 of the crowd, in whom they are no more interefted than in 

 any other individual. If I wifh, therefore, to feeure their 

 fympathy and approbation, (which, according to Mr Smith, 

 are the objects of the ftrongeft defire of my nature), it is ne- 

 cefTary for me to regard my happinefs, not in that light in 

 which it appears to myfelf, but in that light in which it ap- 

 pears to mankind in general. If an unprovoked injury is of- 

 fered to me, I know that fociety will fympathize with my re- 

 fentment ; but if I injure the interefts of another, who never 

 injured me, merely becaufe they ftand in the way of my own, 

 I perceive evidently, that fociety will fympathize with bis re- 

 fentment, and that I mail become the object of general indig- 

 nation. 



(K 2) - When, 



