《道德情操论·卷三·论评判自己情感与行为的基础·三·论良心的影响与权威》第1节
BUT though the approbation of his own conscience can scarce, upon some extraordinary occasions, content the weakness of man; though the testimony of the supposed impartial spectator of the great inmate of the breast, cannot always alone support him; yet the influence and authority of this principle is, upon all occasions, very great; and it is only by consulting this judge within, that we can ever see what relates to ourselves in its proper shape and dimensions; or that we can ever make any proper comparison between our own interests and those of other people. As to the eye of the body, objects appear great or small, not so much according to their real dimensions, as according to the nearness or distance of their situation; so do they likewise to what may be called the natural eye of the mind: and we remedy the defects of both these organs pretty much in the same manner. In my present situation an immense landscape of lawns, and woods, and distant mountains, seems to do no more than cover the little window which I write by, and to be out of all proportion less than the chamber in which I am sitting. I can form a just comparison between those great objects and the little objects around me, in no other way, than by transporting myself, at least in fancy, to a different station, from whence I can survey both at nearly equal distances, and thereby form some judgment of their real proportions. Habit and experience have taught me to do this so easily and so readily, that I am scarce sensible that I do it; and a man must be, in some measure, acquainted with the philosophy of vision, before he can be thoroughly convinced, how little those distant objects would appear to the eye, if the imagination, from a knowledge of their real magnitudes, did not swell and dilate them.
注释摘要
斯密在这一节的开头做了一个重要的让步，随即又做了一个更重要的坚持。他承认，在某些非常时刻，一个人即使得到了自己良心的认可，仍然不足以平息内心的软弱；那个住在胸中的伟大居民——想象出来的公正旁观者——他的证词并不总是足以支撑一个人。但斯密紧接着强调，这个原则的影响力与权威，在任何时刻都非常巨大。只有通过请教这位内心法官，我们才能看清一切与己相关之事本来的样子…