《道德情操论·卷二·论功劳与过失·二之三·论这种天性构造的效用》第1节
IT is thus that man, who can subsist only in society, was fitted by nature to that situation for which he was made. All the members of human society stand in need of each others assistance, and are likewise exposed to mutual injuries. Where the necessary assistance is reciprocally afforded from love, from gratitude, from friendship, and esteem, the society flourishes and is happy. All the different members of it are bound together by the agreeable bands of love and affection, {79} and are, as it were, thereby drawn to one common centre of mutual good offices. But though the necessary assistance should not be afforded from such generous and disinterested motives, though among the different members of the society there should be no mutual love and affection, the society, though less happy and agreeable, will not necessarily be dissolved. Society may subsist among different men, as among different merchants, from a sense of its utility, without any mutual love or affection; and though no man in it should owe any obligation, or be bound in gratitude to any other, it may still be upheld by a mercenary exchange of good offices according to an agreed valuation. Society, however, cannot subsist among those who are at all times ready to hurt and injure one another. The moment that injury begins, the moment that mutual resentment and animosity take place, all the bands of it are broke asunder, and the different members of which it consisted are, as it were, dissipated and scattered abroad by the violence and opposition of their discordant affections. If there is any society among robbers and murderers, they must at least, according to the trite observation, abstain from robbing and murdering one another. Beneficence, therefore, is less essential to the existence of society than justice. Society may subsist, though not in the most comfortable state, without beneficence; but the prevalence of injustice must utterly destroy it.
注释摘要
斯密在这一节的起点是一个简洁有力的人类学判断：人只能在社会中生存，而天性恰好把人造成适合这种生存状态的模样。这个判断不是一句感叹，而是他接下来要展开的整个论证的大前提。他先勾勒出社会得以维系的两条完全不同的纽带，然后逐渐收紧它们，以便在仁慈与正义之间划出一条关乎生死存亡的界限。 一个由爱、感激、友谊与尊重来相互提供帮助的社会，是繁荣而幸福的，成员被愉快的情…