The Theory of Moral Sentiments: Or, an Essay Towards an Analysis of the Principles by Which Men Naturally Judge Concerning the Conduct and Character, First of Their Neighbours, and Afterwards of Themselves. to Which Is Added, a Dissertation on the Origin of Languages.Smith, Adam
Philosophy
The Theory of Moral Sentiments: Or, an Essay Towards an Analysis of the Principles by Which Men Naturally Judge Concerning the Conduct and Character, First of Their Neighbours, and Afterwards of Themselves. to Which Is Added, a Dissertation on the Origin of Languages.
Smith, Adam
Ethics -- Early works to 1800; Language and languages -- Early works to 1800
with order, gravity, and good judgment; but are said to have been
strangers to that sublime and passionate eloquence which was first
introduced into Rome, not many years before the birth of Cicero, by the
two Gracchi, by Crassus, and by Sulpitius. This animated eloquence,
which has been long practiced, with or without success, both in France
and Italy, is but just beginning to be introduced into England. So wide
is the difference between the degrees of self-command which are required
in civilized and in barbarous nations, and by such different standards
do they judge of the propriety of behaviour.
This difference gives occasion to many others that are not less
essential. A polished people being accustomed to give way, in some
measure, to the movements of nature, become frank, open, and sincere.
Barbarians, on the contrary, being obliged to smother and conceal the
appearance of every passion, necessarily acquire the habits of falsehood
and dissimulation. It is observed by all those who have been conversant
with savage nations, whether in Asia, Africa, or America, that they are
all equally impenetrable, and that, when they have a mind to conceal the
truth, no examination is capable of drawing it from them. They cannot be
trepanned by the most artful questions. The torture itself is incapable
of making them confess any thing which they have no mind to tell. The
passions of a savage too, though they never express themselves by any
outward emotion, but lie concealed in the breast of the sufferer, are,
notwithstanding, all mounted to the highest pitch of fury. Though he
seldom shows any symptoms of anger, yet his vengeance, when he comes to
give way to it, is always sanguinary and dreadful. The least affront
drives him to despair. His countenance and discourse indeed are still
sober and composed, and express nothing but the most perfect
tranquillity of mind: But his actions are often the most furious and
violent. Among the North-Americans it is not uncommon for persons of the
tenderest age and more fearful sex to drown themselves upon receiving
only a slight reprimand from their mothers, and this too without
expressing any passions or saying any thing, except, _you shall no
longer have a daughter_. In civilized nations the passions of men are
not commonly so furious or so desperate. They are often clamorous and
noisy, but are seldom very hurtful; and seem frequently to aim at no
other satisfaction, but that of convincing the spectator, that they are
in the right to be so much moved, and of procuring his sympathy and
approbation.
All these effects of custom and fashion, however, upon the moral
sentiments of mankind, are inconsiderable in comparison of those which
they give occasion to in some other cases; and it is not concerning the
general style of character and behaviour, that those principles produce
the greatest perversion of judgment, but concerning the propriety or
impropriety of particular usages.
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