Doubtless it is not the only one. Smith is never exclusive. He knew that there were other passions[200] besides self-interest, and he is not afraid of naming them, as when he attributes an economic revolution which had such beneficial effects as the emancipation of the rural classes to “the most childish vanity of proprietors.”[201] Neither did he omit to point out that personal interest is not equally strong in the breast of every one, and that there is the greatest diversity in human motives. All this he had forgotten, according to some of his critics, while others charge him with the creation of the _homo œconomicus_, a poor representation of reality and a mere automaton exclusively guided by material interests. Someone has remarked that if you add to this figure a tinge of patriotism you have a faithful picture of the Englishman and Scotsman of his day. Had he been acquainted with Germans or Frenchmen, with their less sordid attachment to material gain, he might have judged differently. It may be that our reading of him is incorrect. He seems to have taken care to note that his remarks do not apply to _all_, but only to the generality of men. He continually recalls the fact that he is speaking of men of common understanding,[202] or of those gifted with common prudence.[203] He knew well enough that the principles of common prudence do not always govern the conduct of _every_ individual, but he was of opinion that they always influenced that of the majority of every class and order.[204] His reasoning is applicable to men _en masse_, and not to individuals in particular. Moreover, he does not deny that man may be unacquainted with or may even entirely ignore his own interest. We have just quoted a passage wherein he remarks that bankers who temporarily issue too many notes are at that moment ignorant of their own interests. These reservations notwithstanding, and full account being taken of all the exceptions to the principle as laid down by Smith, it is still true to say that as a general thesis he considers “the natural effort of every individual to better his own condition”—that is, personal interest—as the fundamental psychological motive in political economy. Any reference to the case of business men who are really actuated by a desire to take general welfare as their guide in matters of conduct is treated with a measure of scepticism which it is difficult not to share. “I have never known much good done by those who affected to trade for the public good. It is an affectation, indeed, not very common among merchants, and very few words need be employed in dissuading them from it.”[205] Not that sentiment does not play a part, and a very important part, in the philosophy of Smith; but sentiment, or sympathy, as he calls it, has the domain of morality for its own, while interest dominates that of economics. All his thinking led him to a firm belief in a spontaneous economic order founded and guided by self-interest.