In a chapter (VII.) entitled ’certain principles co-operating with our moral powers,’ he discusses (1) a regard to character, (2) Sympathy, (3) the Sense of the Ridiculous, (4) Taste.  The important topic is the second, Sympathy; which, psychologically, he would appear to regard as determined by the pleasure that it gives.  Under this head he introduces a criticism of the Ethical theory of Adam Smith; and, adverting to the inadequacy of the theory to distinguish the right from the actual judgments of mankind, he remarks on Smith’s ingenious fiction ’of an abstract man within the breast;’ and states that Smith laid much greater stress on this fiction in the last edition of the Moral Sentiments published before his death.  It is not without reason that Stewart warns against grounding theories on metaphorical expressions, such as this of Smith, or the Platonic Commonwealth of the Soul.

In Book IV. of the Active Powers, Stewart discusses our Duties to Men,—­both our fellow-creatures and ourselves.  Our duties to our fellows are summed up in Benevolence, Justice, and Veracity.  He devotes a chapter to each.  In Chapter I., on Benevolence, he re-opens the consideration of the Ethical systems founded on Benevolence or Utility, and argues against them; but merely repeats the common-place objections—­the incompetency of individuals to judge of remote tendencies, the pretext that would be afforded for the worst conduct, and each one’s consciousness that a sense of duty is different from enlightened benevolence.

Chapter II. is on Justice; defined as the disposition that leads a man, where his own interests or passions are concerned, to act according to the judgment he would form of another man’s duty in his situation.  He introduces a criticism on Adam Smith, and re-asserts the doctrine of an innate faculty, explained as the power of forming moral ideas, and not as the innate possession of ideas.  For the most part, his exposition is didactic and desultory, with occasional discussions of a critical and scientific nature; as, for example, some remarks on Hume’s theory that Justice is an artificial virtue, an account of the basis of Jurisprudence, and a few observations on the Right of Property.

In Chapter III., on Veracity, he contends that considerations of utility do not account for the whole force of our approbation of this virtue. [So might any one say that considerations of what money can purchase do not account for the whole strength of avarice].

In Chapter IV. he deals with Duties to ourselves, and occupies the chapter with a dissertation on Happiness.  He first gives an account of the theories of the Stoics and the Epicureans, which connect themselves most closely with the problem of Happiness; and next advances some observations of his own on the subject.

His first remark is on the influence of the Temper, by which he means the Resentful or Irascible passion, on Happiness.  As against a censorious disposition, he sets up the pleasure of the benevolent sentiments; he enjoins candour with respect to the motives of others, and a devoted attachment to truth and virtue for their intrinsic excellence; and warns us, that the causes that alienate our affections from our fellow-creatures, suggest gloomy and Hamlet-like conceptions of the order of the universe.