Limitations of Smithian Sympathy: Smith’s Social Sympathy and Wordsworth’s Unreadable City

In The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759), Adam Smith suggests an important theory about moral sentiments that influenced many contemporary writers. While some praised Smith’s original theory of moral sentiments that emphasized the importance of society, others have been more skeptical about the workings of Smithian sympathy. In this essay, I first explore the primary elements of Smith’s theory that make it unique and significant. Then, I turn to the evaluation of Smithian sympathy by another important thinker in the early nineteenth century, the Romantic poet William Wordsworth. Wordsworth evaluates the workings of Smithian sympathy in his portrayal of London in Book Seventh of The Prelude (1805), where the emerging city of London serves as a counterexample to the mechanism of Smithian sympathy as the London society fails to work as a mirror for its members. The examination of Book Seventh of The Prelude will not only illuminate the flaws in the Smithian scheme of sympathy but also highlight Wordsworth’s insights on the subject as well as his corrections to Smith’s system.