Account of 

 Dr Smith, 



76 HISfORr of the SOCIEfr. 



When, upon any occafion, I am led by the violence of pafc 

 {ion to overlook thefe confiderations, and, in the cafe of a com- 

 petition of interefls, 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 conduct, 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 ; I pity the unhappy fufferer whom 

 I have injured ', and I feel myfelf a juft object of indignation 

 to mankind. " Such, fays Mr Smith, is the nature of that 

 " fentiment which is properly called remorfe. It is made up 

 of fhame from the fenfe of the impropriety of pad conduct ; 

 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 ra-- 

 " tional creatures." 



The 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. 



The foregoing obfervations contain a general fummary of 

 Mr Smith's principles with refpect to the origin of our moral 

 fentiments, in fo far at lead 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 juflice, to have no in- 

 fluence on our opinion, either of the propriety or the merit 



of 



