Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 7.djvu/148

284 example, Dr Brown remarks, we may feel, on the perusal of the same poem, the performance of the same musical air, the sight of the same picture or statue, a rapture or disgust, accordant with the rapture or disgust expressed by another reader, or listener, or spectator; a sympathy far more complete than takes place in our consideration of the circumstances in which he may have had to regulate his conduct in any of the common affairs of life. If mere accordance of emotion, then, imply the feeling of moral excellence of any sort, we should certainly feel a moral regard for all whose taste coincides with ours; yet, however gratifying the sympathy in such a case may be, we do not feel, in consequence of this sympathy, any morality in the taste that is most exactly accordant with our own. There is an agreement of emotions, but nothing more; and if we had not a principle of moral approbation, by which, independently of sympathy, and previously to it, we regard actions as right, the most exact sympathy of passion would, in like manner, hare been a proof to us of an agreement of feelings, but of nothing more. It proves to us more; because the emotions which we compare with our own, are recognized by us as moral feelings, independently of the agreement.

But though the leading doctrine of Dr Smith's theory be considered by many, apparently on just grounds, as erroneous, his work is still unquestionably one of the most interesting which have been produced on moral science. It abounds in faithful delineations of characters and manners, and contains the purest and most elevated maxims for the practical regulation of human life. The style, though perhaps not sufficiently precise for the subject, is throughout eloquent, and serves, by the richness of its colouring, to relieve the dryness of some of the more abstract discussions.

Dr Smith's "Dissertation on the Origin of Languages," which is now generally bound up with the "Theory of Moral Sentiments," made its first appearance with the second edition of that work. In this ingenious and beautiful tract, the author gives a theoretical history of the formation of languages, in which he endeavours to ascertain the different steps by which they would gradually arrive at their present so artificial and complicated state.

As the "Theory of Moral Sentiments" contains the most important part of Dr Smith's ethical doctrines, he was enabled, after the publication of that work, to devote a larger part of his course of lectures, than he had previously done, to the elucidation of the principles of jurisprudence and political economy. From a statement which he drew up in 1755, in order to vindicate his claim to certain political and literary opinions, it appears that, from the time when he obtained a chair in the university of Glasgow, and even while he was delivering private lectures in Edinburgh, he had been in the habit of teaching the same liberal system of policy, with respect to the freedom of trade, which he afterwards published in the "Wealth of Nations." His residence in one of the largest commercial towns in the island, must have been of considerable advantage to him, by enabling him to acquire correct practical information on many points connected with the subject of his favourite studies; and Mr Stewart states, as a circumstance very honourable to the liberality of the merchants of Glasgow, that, notwithstanding the reluctance so common among men of business to listen to the conclusions of mere speculation, and the direct opposition of Dr Smith's leading principles to all the old maxims of trade, he was able, before leaving the university, to rank some of the most eminent merchants of the city among the number of his proselytes.

The publication of the "Theory of Moral Sentiments," served greatly to increase the reputation of its author. In 1762, the Senatus Academicus of the university of Glasgow unanimously conferred on him the honorary degree of