As we descend from the dramatic surface to the operative level, we begin to see divisions in the ranks of the angels. Justice and love, as they were understood in the mainstream medieval syntheses of Greek and Hebrew culture, are in Smith and other philosophers of the early modern epoch riddled with exceptions, limited, and redefined. 1. Property assumes priority. The Wealth of Nations is an expanded version of the last part of Smith s lectures on jurisprudence, the part concerning the duty of police to promote prosperity. But the first duty of police is to establish peace.
Peace is established by guaranteeing to every person security in the possession of property.
In this and in other ways, the priority of property is presupposed and guaranteed before political economy even begins. Benevolence becomes voluntary. Moderns like Smith discard caritas as a name for the human duty to cooperate and share with others, and write instead about benevolence. Benevolence is classified as an imperfect duty. Sympathy backs 18 th century British common sense.