cipally combated was the
idea that sympathy with the sufferings of another originated in any
way in our imagining what would be our own feelings if we were in the
sufferer's place. He contends, on the contrary, that it is excited
directly by the perception of the screams, contortions, tears, or
other outward signs of the pain that is endured; and that trying to
put ourselves in the sufferer's place produces really a
self-satisfaction, on account of our own immunity from his troubles,
which has the effect not of awakening the feeling of pity but of
moderating and diminishing it.

A second objection he raises is that if Smith's theory were true,
those in whom the power of imagination was strongest would feel the
force of the moral duties most sensibly, and vice versa, which, he
says, is contradicted by experience. His last objection is that while
the theory proposes to explain the origin of the moral sentiments so
far as they respect other persons, it fails entirely to account for
those sentiments in regard to ourselves. Our distress on losing an
only son and our gratitude for a kindly office neither need to be
explained nor can they be explained by imagining ourselves to be other
persons.

One of the first acquaintances Smith made in Edinburgh was a young
Caithness laird who was presently to make a considerable figure in
public life--the patriotic and laborious Sir John Sinclair, founder of
the Board of Agriculture, promoter of the Statistical Account of
Scotland, and author of the _History of the Public Revenue_, _the Code
of Agriculture_, _the Code of Health_, and innumerable pamphlets on
innumerable subjects. Sinclair was not yet in Parliament when Smith
came to Edinburgh in the end of 1777, but his hands were already full
of serious work. He was busy with his _History of the Public Revenue_,
in which Smith gave him every assistance in his power, and he had
actually finished a treatise on the Christian Sabbath, which, in
deference to Smith's advice, he never gave to the press. The object of
this treatise was to show that the puritanical Sabbath observance of
Scotland had no countenance in Holy Scripture, and that, while part of
the day ought certainly to be devoted to divine service, the rest
might be usefully employed in occupations of a character not strictly
religious without infringing any divine law. When the work was
completed, Sinclair showed the manuscript to Smith, who dissuaded him
strongly from printing