WRITINGS OF DR. SMITH. XXXVII

no particular relation , either to ourfelves % or tothofe whofe interefts are affected by our conduct;and we ftudy to a£f in fuch a manner as to obtainthe approbation of this fuppofed impartial fpedla-tor. It is only by confulting him that we can feewhatever relates to ourfelves in its proper flfiapeand dimenfions.

There are two different occafions, on which weexamine our own conduct, and endeavour to. viewit in the light in which the impartial fpe£fatorwould view it. Firft, when we are about to abt;and, fecondly, after we have ailed. In bath ca-fes, our views are very apt to be partial.

When we are about to ail, the eagernefs ofpaf-fion feldom allows us to confider what we are doingwith the candor of an indifferent perfon. Whenthe ailion is over, and the paffions which prompt-ed it have fubfided, although we can undoubt-edly enter into the fentiments of the indifferentfpeclator much more coolly than before, yet it islo difagreeable to us to think ill of ourfelves, thatwe often purpofely turn away our view from thofeeircumftances which might render our judgmentunfavorable. — Hence that felf-deceit which is thefource of half the diforders of human life.

In order to guard ourfelves againft its delulions,nature leads us to form infeniibly, by our conti-nual obfervations upon the conduil of others cer-tain general rules concerning what is fit and pro ■