《道德情操论·卷二·论功劳与过失·三之二·论这种影响的限度》第5节
The person himself who either from passion, or from the influence of bad company, has resolved, and perhaps taken measures to perpetrate some crime, but who has fortunately been prevented by an accident which put it out of his power, is sure, if he has any remains of conscience, to regard this event all his life after as a great and signal deliverance. He can never think of it without returning thanks to Heaven, for having been thus graciously pleased to save him from the guilt in which he was just ready to plunge himself, and to hinder him from rendering all the rest of his life a scene of horror, remorse, and repentance. But though his hands are innocent, he is conscious that his heart is equally guilty as if he had actually executed what he was so fully resolved upon. It gives great ease to his conscience, however, to consider that the crime was not executed, though he knows that the failure arose from no virtue in him. He still considers himself as less deserving of punishment and resentment; and this good fortune either diminishes, or takes away altogether, all sense of guilt. To remember how much he was resolved upon it, has no other effect than to make him regard his escape as the greater and more miraculous: for he still fancies that he has escaped, and he looks back upon the danger to which his peace of mind was exposed, with that terror, with which one {93} who is in safety may sometimes remember the hazard he was in of falling over a precipice, and shudder with horror at the thought.
注释摘要
这段文字紧接在斯密对第一个效应的一般性陈述之后。此前他已经论证过，即便是公正的旁观者，也难免会因为一个善举未能成功而降低对行为者功劳的评价；接下来他用犯罪未遂的例子，把同一种心理机制推到反面，来说明过失的评价同样会被实际后果的缺席所削弱。此刻他所分析的，已经不是旁观者的目光，而是犯罪者本人的内心世界。他要展示的是，即便在最私密、最不可能自我欺骗的良心里，运…