ABSTRACT
Both of Adam Smith’s works start from considerations on the nature and causes of the topics addressed—moral sentiments in one case, wealth in the other—to go on to analyse their historical relations. In both cases, having expounded his own views, Smith compares them to the systems he intends to criticize. The imaginations of the men had been first made familiar with it in that the earliest period of society, and the uniform continuance of the custom had hindered them afterwards from perceiving its enormity. Smith’s reflections on the practice of infanticide would confirm the reading, customs accounting for the ‘cultural diversity’, which, nevertheless, cannot clash with that ‘universality of justice’ without which society cannot subsist. Savages are compelled to familiarize with infanticide by hard living conditions that lead them to become accustomed to absolute self-command and indifference to their sentiments.
