The Theory of Moral Sentiments - Adam Smith [267]
10 See Cardinal de Retz, Mémoires (p. 372 in the modern Pléiade edition).
11 See Plato, Crito 51b-c, as cited by Cicero in Epistulae ad Familiares 1.9.18; see also Cicero, De officiis 1.85.
12 See Plutarch, Lives, “Solon” 15; Montesquieu, Spirit of the Laws 19.21; Rousseau, Letter to d’Alembert.
13 For the context of Smith’s discussion of universal benevolence, see, e.g., Hutcheson, Essay with Illustrations 1.2.2; Kames, Essays on Morality and Religion 1.2.
14 The Meditations were particularly admired by Smith’s teacher Hutcheson, who had them translated and published in Glasgow.
15 The accusation is reported in the Scriptores Historiae Augustae (“Life of Avidius Cassius” 14.5). Smith’s caveat that the accusation has been brought “perhaps unjustly” is crucial; the Meditations consistently emphasize the superiority of activity to passivity and our obligations to mutual benevolence (see esp. 5.1, 9.16, 9.42, 11.21). In general, Smith’s critique of Stoicism seems to follow Cicero’s critique; see, e.g., De finibus 4.68 and De officiis 1.19.
PART VI, SECTION III
1 Among such “ancient moralists,” see, e.g., Plato, who distinguishes the control of anger from the control of pleasure (e.g., Republic 4, 429a-432a), and Aristotle, who in treating the virtues of the irrational parts of the soul treats courage and temperance separately (Nicomachean Ethics 3.6-11; 1115a5-1119a21); see also Smith’s accounts at 7.2 below.
2 On the nobility and dazzling splendor of Socrates’ death, see, e.g., Xenophon, Memorabilia 4.8. Among commentators in “succeeding ages,” see, e.g., Helvétius’s identification of Socrates’ magnanimity with “love of glory” (De l’esprit 3.16).
3 Smith refers to Birch, The heads of illustrious persons of Great Britain (1743). Birch’s book contains entries for More, Raleigh, and Russell, all executed for treason or conspiracy. Birch’s first edition has an entry for Sidney Godolphin and his later second volume includes one for Sir Philip Sidney, but not one for Algernon Sidney, presumably meant here.
4 Buccaneer: “a cant word for the privateers, or pirates of America” (Johnson).
5 Smith examines and compares Demosthenes’ and Cicero’s speeches at length in Rhetoric 25-26.
6 See, e.g., the concluding assessment of Catherine’s character in Davila, History of the Civil Wars in France 9; Clarendon, History of the Rebellion 4.127-28; and Locke, “Memoirs relating to the life of Anthony, first Earl of Shaftesbury.” All three of Smith’s examples concern studies of principal figures in civil wars written by direct dependents.
7 See Cicero, De officiis 1.108-113. Contra Smith, these are less praises than reports; when Cicero speaks in his own name about these figures, his judgments are more critical (see 3.49, 3.73-75, 3.97- 99).
8 The story here recounted received wide distribution in the eighteenth century through its inclusion in Abbé Raynal’s Anecdotes litteraires (1750). But Smith likely knew it from the first volume of the 1729 edition of Despréaux’s collected works, which he owned as part of his library. There it is to be found in a footnote glossing Satire II, “To Molière,” lines 93-94 (which might be translated: “And always unhappy with what he had done, / He pleased the whole world, all except for one”).
9 Alexander’s belief in his divine lineage and his desire for divine recognition are prominent themes in the classic historical accounts; his attempt to secure his mother’s apotheosis is mentioned only in Quintus Curtius Rufus 9.6.26 and 10.5.30.
10 On Socrates’ daimon, see, e.g., Plato, Apology 31c-d; Phaedrus 242c; and Xenophon, Memorabilia 1.1.4; on the oracle’s pronouncement and Socrates’ response, see Apology 21a-23b.
11 See Suetonius 1.78.
12 With Cicero, Cato the Younger was a leading member of the optimates , who opposed the often unprincipled and demagogic populares with whom both Catiline and Caesar were aligned; Smith describes both parties in his rhetoric lectures (Rhetoric 2.155-161).