ABSTRACT
One reviewer of the Theory of Moral Sentiments noted that the strictest regard was paid throughout to the principles of religion, so that the serious reader will find nothing that will give him any just ground of offence. Of the modem writers who emerged as the critics of egoistical theory Francis Hutcheson receives most attention from Adam Smith. Elsewhere Smith extended the analogy to the study of language, and to the plant and animal creation. Smith was well aware that the persuasive power of Bernard Mandeville's coarse and rustic eloquence had convinced many of the truth of his sophistry, while at the same time containing more than a grain of truth. Mandeville emerges as a proponent of egoistical theory; as a vigorous and amusing writer who infuriated many contemporaries by apparently demonstrating the all pervading force of human vanity and the awesome consequences of austerity.
