《道德情操论·卷一·论行为的合宜性·二之四·论友好的情感》第2节
The sentiment of love is, in itself, agreeable to the person who feels it. It soothes and composes the breast, seems to favour the vital motions, and to promote the healthful state of the human constitution; and it is rendered still more delightful by the consciousness of the gratitude and satisfaction which it must excite in him who is the object of it. Their mutual regard renders them happy in one another, and sympathy, with this mutual regard, makes them agreeable to every other person. With what pleasure do we look upon a family, through the whole of which reign mutual love and esteem, where the parents and children are companions for one another, without any other difference than what is made by respectful affection on the one side, and kind indulgence on the other; where freedom and fondness, mutual raillery and mutual kindness, show that no opposition of interest divides the brothers, nor any rivalship of favour sets the sisters at variance, and where every thing presents us with the idea of peace, cheerfulness, harmony, and contentment? On the contrary, how uneasy are we made when we go into a house in which jarring contention sets one half of those who dwell in it against the other; where, amidst affected smoothness and complaisance, suspicious looks and sudden starts of passion betray the mutual jealousies which burn within them, and which are every moment ready to burst out through all the restraints which the presence of the company imposes?
注释摘要
斯密在这一节里处理的是友好的情感——爱、慷慨、温厚、相互关怀——究竟为什么会让旁观者也觉得愉快。此前他刚讨论过憎恨与怨恨那一类情感，因为旁观者在面对它们时，同感是分裂的，进不去，所以那些激情显得不雅、令人不舒服。友好的情感恰好反了过来：它会给旁观者带来一种加倍的同情，于是这一类情感几乎在任何情形下都显得特别合宜、令人愉悦。 他在这个段落里先拆解爱这种情感本…