XXX

ACCOUNT OF THE LIFE AND

refentment, which every reafonable man is readyto adopt and fympathize with.

It is however very neceffary to observe, that wedo not thoroughly sympathize with the gratitudeof one man towards another, merely because thisother has been the cause of his good fortune,unless he has been the cause of it from motiveswhich we entirely go along with. Our sense there-fore , of the good desert of an aftion, is a com-pounded sentiment, made up of an indireâ sym-pathy with the person to whom the adlion is bene-ficial , and of a direfl sympathy with the affections

and motives of the agent.-The fame remark

applies, mutatis. mutandis, to our sense of demerit,or of ill-defert.

From these principles, it is inferred, that theonly aéfions which appear to us deserving of re-ward, are anions of a beneficial tendency, pro-ceeding from proper motives; the only actionswhich seem to deserve punifliment, are actionsof a hurtful tendency, proceeding from improper-motives. A mere want of beneficence exposes tono punifliment; because the mere want of bene-ficence tends to do no real positive evil. A man,on the other hand, who is barely innocent, andcontents himself with observing ftridly the lawsof juftice with refpedl to others, can merit only,that his neighbours, in thèir turn, lliould observereligiously the fame laws with relpeci to him.