WRITINGS OF DR. SMITH.

XLI

gree ofeftc-em, arifingfrom a double fympathy withthe motives of the agent, andthegratitudeoftliofe,who are the objects of his affe&ion. In this refpeftbeneficence appears to him to be diftingnilhed fromthe inferior virtues of prudence, vigilance, circum-fpeClion, temperance, conftancy, firmnefs, whichare always regarded with approbation, but whicliconfer no merit. This diftin&ion, he apprehends,has not been fufficiently attended to by moralifts;the principles of fome affording no explanation ofthe approbation we bellow on the inferior virtues;and thofe of others accounting as imperfectly forthe peculiar excellency which the fupreme virtueof beneficence is acknowledged to poffefs.

Such are the outlines of Mr. Smith’s Theory ofMoral Sentiments; a work which , whatever opi-nion we may entertain of the juftneis of its conclu-fions, mull be allowed by all to be a fingular ef-fort of invention, ingenuity, and fubtilty. Formy own part I mult confefs, that it does not coin-cide with my notions concerning the foundationof Morals; but I am convinced, at the fame time,that it contains a large mixture of important truth,and that, although the author has fometimes beenmilled by too great a delire of generalizing his prin-ciples, he has had the merit of dire&ing the at-tention of philofophers to a view of human naturewhich had formerly in a great meafure efcapedtheir notice. Of the great proportion of juft and