XX ACCOUNT OFTHE LIFE AND

renders us fufceptible of pleafure or of pain fromthe view of virtue or of vice, he gave the nameof the Moral Senfe. His reafonings upon ‘thisfubje£l are in the main acquiefced in, both byMr. Hume and Mr. Smith ; but they differ fromhim in one important particular, —Dr. Hutche-son plainly fuppofmg, that the moral fenfe is ahmple principle of our conftitution, of which noaccount can be given ; whereas the other twophilofophers have both attempted to analyze itinto other principles more general. Their fyltems,however, with refpecl to it are very different fromeach other. According to Mr. Hume, all the qua-lities which are denominated virtuous, are usefuleither to ourselves or to others, and the pleasurewhich we derive from the view of them is thepleafure of utility. Mr. Smith, without reje$ingentirely Mr. Hume’s doftrine, proposes anotherof his own, far more comprehenfive, a dodirinewith which he thinks all the mod celebrated theo-ries of morality invented by his predecessors coin-cide in part, and from some partial view of which,he apprehends that they have all proceeded.

Of this very ingenious and original theory, Ishall endeavour to give a short abdratl. To thosewho are familiarly acquainted with it as it is datedby its author, I am aware that the attempt mayappear superfluous; but I flatter myself that itwill not be wholly useless to such as have not been