ESSAYS BY ADAM SMITH

ON

PHILOSOPHICAL SUBJECTS

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ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITORS.

THE much lamented author of these Essays left them in the hands of his friends to be disposed of as they thought proper, having immediately before his death destroyed many other manuscripts which he thought unfit for being made public. When these were inspected, the greater number of them appeared to be parts of a plan he once had formed, for giving a connected history of the liberal sciences and elegant arts. It is long since he found it necessary to abandon that plan as far too extensive; and these parts of it lay beside him neglected until his death. His friends are persuaded, however, that the reader will find in them that happy connection, that full and accurate expression, and that clear illustration which are conspicuous in the rest of his works; and that though it is difficult to add much to the great fame he so justly acquired by his other writings, these will be read with satisfaction and pleasure.

JOSEPH BLACK. JAMES HUTTON.

CONTENTS.

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THE THEORY OF MORAL SENTIMENTS.

PART I.✦

OF THE PROPRIETY OF ACTIONS. PAGE SEC. I. Of the Sense of Propriety . . . . 9

CH. I. Of Sympathy . . . . . . 9-13 CH. II. Of the Pleasure of Mutual Sympathy . . 13-16 CH. III., IV. Of the manner in which we judge of the Propriety or Impropriety of the Affections of other Men, by their Concord or Dissonance with our own . . . . . . . 16-23 CH. V. Of the amiable and respectable Virtues . 23-26

SEC. II. Of the Degrees of the different Passions which are consistent with Propriety . . 26

CH. I. Of the Passions which take their Origin from the Body . . . . . . . 26-30 CH. II. Of those Passions which take their Origin from a particular Turn or Habit of the Imagination . . . . . . 30-32 CH. III. Of the unsocial Passions . . . 32-37 CH. IV. Of the social Passions . . . . 37-39 CH. V. Of the selfish Passions . . . . 39-41

SEC. III. Of the Effects of Prosperity and Adversity upon the Judgment of Mankind with regard to the Propriety of Action; and why it is more easy to obtain their Approbation in the one State than in the other . . . . . . 42

CH. I. That though our Sympathy with Sorrow is generally a more lively Sensation than our Sympathy with Joy, it commonly falls much more short of the Violence of what is naturally felt by the Person principally concerned . . 42-47 CH. II. Of the Origin of Ambition, and of the Distinction of Ranks . . . . 47-56 CH. III. Of the Corruption of our Moral Sentiments, which is occasioned by this Disposition to admire the Rich and the Great, and to despise or neglect Persons of poor and mean Condition . . 56-60

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