a? 5145 43 i University of California. FRO] ,, FRANCIS. LIEBKR. Professor of History and Law in Columbia Collie, New TH MICHAEL REESE 1ST 3 . LIBRARY OF USEFUL KNOWLEDGE. LIFE OF DR. ADAM SMITH PUBLISHED UNDER THE SUPERINTENDENCE OF SOCIETY FOR THE DIFFUSION OF USEFUL KNOWLEDGE. THE COMMITTEE. CAairma-H. BROUGHAM, Esq., F.R.S., M.P. Vice C/iaifwan-LORD JOHN RUSSELL. lyMmwr-WJLLJAM TOOKE, Esq., F.R.S. W. Allen, Esq., F.R.S. ' Viscount Althorp, M.P. Rt. Hon. Vise. Ashley, M.P. Rt Hon Lord Auckland. Hon. G A. Ellis, M.A., M.P. T. F. Ellis, Esq., M.A. Thomas Falconer, Esq. I. L.Goldsmid. Esq, F.R.S. Georice Long, Esq , A M. J.W.'Lubbock,Esq.F.R.&L.S. Dr. Lushington.D.C.L. . Zacharv lUacaulav, Esq. Dr. Roget, Sec. R.S. C. E. Rumbold, Esq., M.P. J. Smith, Esq., M.P. Wm. Sturch, Esq. \V. B. Baring, Esq., iM. P. Capt.F.Beaufort, R.N., F.R.S. C. Bell, Esq. F.R.S., L.&E. T. F. Buxton, Esq., F.R.S, B. Gompertz, Esq., F.R.S. H.Hallam, Esq.,F.R S..M.A M. D. Hill, Esq. Rowland Hill, Esq. B. H. Mallcin, Esq., M.A.' Rev.Ed. Maltby.U.D., F.R.S. James Manning, Esq. F. O. Martin, Esq. Rt. Hon. Lord Suffield. C. P .Thomson, Esq , 'M.P. Dr. A. T. Thomson, F.L.S. N. A. Vigors, Esq., F.R.S. Mp E. Hill, Esq. J. Marshall, Esq. H. Warburton Esq M P ...r. R Otway Cave, Esq. JohnCamHobhouse,Esq.,M.P. John Herman Merivale, Esq. F.R.S. John Conolly, M D. William Coulson, Esq. Leonard Horner, Esq., K.R.S. David Jardine, Esq. James Mill, Esq. James Morrison, Esq., M.P. H. Waymoutti, Esq. 'J. WhU'haw, ESQ.. M.A.. Wm Crawford, Esq. Henrv B. Ker, Esq., F.R.S. 1 Sir H. Parnell, Bart ", M.P. 1 F.R.S. ' '' ~ ' Fred Daniell, Esq., F.R.S. J. G.'S. Lefevre,.Esq., F.R.S. ; Professor Pattison. Mr. Serjeant Wilde. J. F. Davis, Esq., F.R.S. T. Denman, Esq M. P. Edward Lloyd, Esq, M.A. Jas. LoulnEsq., M.P.,F.G.S. T. Spring Rice, EM}., M.P., F.A.S. John. Wood, Esq. M.P. [John \Vrotteslev, Esq., M.A. AMurion J.F.Kingston.Esq. Rev. C. Thirlwall, M. A. Keighley, Yorkshirt-Rev. T. Newport Pagnell James Mil- Birmingham Local Association. Rev John Corrie, F.R.S. Dcr/j.v Joseph Strutt, Esq. Wm. Strutt, Esq. Dury, M.A. I.aunceiton Rev. J. Barfitt. lar, Esq. Korwich Rich. Bacon, Esq. Chairman. Paul Moon James, Esq., Devonport Major J. Hamilton Smith, F.H. & L.S. Leamington Spa Dr. Loudon. Leedt Benjamin Gott, Esq. Plymouth Geo. Harvey, Esq., F.R.S. Treasurer Dublin Hon. Thos. Vesey. J. Marshall, Jun., Esq. Portsmouth E. Carter, Esq. Jos. Parkes, Esq. \ Hon. Edinburgh Right Hon. The Lerves-J. W. Woollgar, Esq. G. Grant, Ksq Wm. Redfern, Esq. J Sec*. Lord Chief Baron. Liverpool Local Association. D. Inward, Eb/ of extending the range of his benevo- lence, which is known to have been at all times exerted in acts of charity, far beyond what might have been ex- pected of him, even after this moderate increase of his income. His excellent biographer has alluded to some remark- able instances of this nature in the life of Smith, which have been communicated to him by one of his confidential friends, where the assistance was on a scale as liberal as the manner of rendering it was delicate and affecting. Next to this was the satisfaction he derived from the privilege of spending the latter period of his life in the society of his oldest and * dearest friends free from those anxious cares with which the want of mere worldly competence has sometimes dark- ened the declining years of genius and of virtue. In the society of his mother, and of his cousin, Miss Douglas, who; now formed part of his household, he enjoyed for some years every comfort and consolation that can be felt by one who is a stranger to the more endearing ties which bind a husband and a father. A simple, but hospitable table was al- ways open to his friends. In 1784 he lost his mother, and four j years after, his cousin ; and their death / was felt by him as a severe and irre- parable loss ; little to be soothed by any worldly honour or applause ; it being the eft'ect, perhaps, of age and of all true wisdom, to render the mind as in- sensible to such vanities, as it is to dis- pose it to the influence of the social and domestic affections. Were it otherwise, the affliction under which he suffered might have been somewhat alleviated by one of the most gratifying circumstances * There is a letter of Dr. Reid's extant, addressed to Lord Kames, in which lie says that " after all, the system of sympathy is only a refinement of the selfish system," a criticism very like to saying that white is only a refinement on the colour of black tilings, in which the plain sense of the world has discovered, some how or other, a pretty clear and durable distinction; notwithstanding the painter may blend them with his brush, or a logician, like Dr. Reid, confound them by his cavils. j 26 of his life, which occurred about this period. In the year 1 787 the University J of Glasgow elected him rector of that learned body; and that he felt this com- pliment very sensibly, is manifest from the letter which he addressed to the principal of the college in acknowledg- ment of this flattering distinction an honour, however, be it remarked, which could scarcely have been rendered where it would have reflected back so much credit upon those who had bestowed it, and which, we may venture to say, would not have been lessened in the estimation of Dr. Smith, had he lived to see it conferred upon some illustrious names who have shared it in our own times. "No preferment," says he, " could have given me so much real satisfaction. No man can owe greater obligations to a society than I do to the University of Glasgow. They educated me ; they sent me to Oxford. Soon after my return to Scotland, they elected me one of their own members, and afterwards pre- ferred me to another office, to which the abilities and virtues of the never to be forgotten Dr. Hutcheson had given a superior degree of illustration. The period of thirteen years which I spent as a member of that society, I remember as by far the most useful, and there- fore as by far the happiest and most honourable period of my life : and now, after three- and-twenty years absence, to be remembered in so very agreeable a manner by my old friends and protectors, gives me a heartfelt joy which I cannot easily express to you." The life of this illustrious man was now fast drawing to a close. For a considerable period previous to his death his health had gradually declined, and his mind reverted in his last mo- ments with renewed regret to what he had left undone of the works he had so long designed. His death was ap- proaching far too rapidly to leave the slightest hope of doing more ; and his anxiety about the fate of his manu- scripts became excessive. It was so great, that during his last illness, after reiterating the most earnest entreaties for their destruction after his death, he was yet not satisfied, and desired that the whole of his papers, except the few fragments which he bequeathed to the care of Dr. Hutton, might be destroyed immediately. His mind seemed greatly relieved, when he was assured that this was done. A very few days before he LIFE OF DR. ADAM SMITH. died, he had two or three of his select friends to sup with him, as was his custom; but finding his strength fail him, he retired to bed, and as he went away, he took leave of them by saying, I believe, Gentlemen, we must adjourn this meeting to some other place." In the previous winter he had prepared a new edition of his " Moral Sentiments," and in the advertisement which he pre- fixed to it, he had still allowed himself to express a last and faint hope that it might yet be permitted to him to com- plete his long-projected work on juris- prudence. Even then, the ardour of his mind would not suffer him alto- gether to relinquish a hope which, it was but too evident, could never be fulfilled. He died only a few days after the meeting to which we have referred, on the 17th July, 1790, bequeathing the valuable library which he had collected to his nephew, Mr. D. Douglas; ap- pointing his friends, Dr. Hutton and Dr. Black, the executors of his will ; and entrusting to them the charge of publishing the few unfinished sketches which had been allowed to survive him. SECTION 7 '.On the general Character and Writings of Smith. THE character of Dr. Smith, like that of all men whose lives have been devoted to the pursuits of philosophy and sci- ence, may be best traced in his writings. It has perhaps been the fortune of few men so eminent to have engaged so little in the commerce and bustle of active life, and of few, it has been said, to have been so little fitted for it : yet the intellectual and moral capacities of this illustrious man were evidently of an order to have filled, and adorned, the highest station in society; and, notwithstanding the abstraction in which he lived, for the most part, from the business of the world, and some peculiar and charac- teristic traits which occasionally marked his habits and his opinions, it is clear that, with an understanding of the loftiest range, he was free, in many respects, from that, exclusiveness and pedantry which have been sometimes ascribed to philosophers of great name, and which have given currency, we sup- pose, " to the opinion, so industriously propagated (says Mr. Hume) by the dunces in every age, that a man of genius is unfit for business." In the establish- ment of his most enlightened theories, and those least of^ all subject to be dis- LIFE OF DR. ADAM SMITH. 27 puted in their ultimate and general ten- dency, he did not lose sight of that modification which they may occasion- ally require in practice, for the accom- plishment of an immediate and benefi- cial purpose; and if the evidence of many striking passages in his works may be trusted, he did not incur as a philosopher, and would not have in- curred as a statesman, the censure of rashly and unfeelingly adhering to an abstract principle in disdain of the inte- rests which might be prejudiced, or even the prejudices which might have been shocked, by its application. Nothing is more obvious, and nothing contributes so much to the beauty and value of his writing, as that in all his speculations he carried human life along with him; he never forgot that it was the chief praise and glory of philosophy to teach men how to act and to live ; and he breathes through every page the admirable sentiment of a noble author | " That whatever study tends neither [directly nor indirectly to make us better I men and better citizens, is at best but a specious and ingenious sort of idleness, and the knowledge we acquire by it only a creditable kind of ignorance nothing more *." This is eminently displayed in that valuable chapter to which we have referred, in the fifth book of the " Wealth of Nations," on the " Institu- tions for the Education of Youth" one of the most profound and powerful disquisitions in any language. Neither the abstractions of philosophy, nor the pride of learning, nor the habits of the professor, could render him insensible to the purpose to which they ought all to be subservient, namely, the real interest of those who are to be taught. But the spirit of monopoly in such institutions he shews to be as ini- mical to those interests as it is in every other case. " The endowment of schools and colleges," he says, " have been opposed to this interest ; they have not only corrupted the diligence of pub- lic teachers, but they have rendered it almost impossible to have any good pri- vate ones. Were there no endowed in- stitutions for education, no system, no science could be taught for which there was not some demand. A private teacher could never find his account in teaching either an exploded and anti- quated system of science acknowledged to be useful, or a science universally be- * Lord Bolingbroke On the Study of History, lieved to be a mere useless and pedantic heap of sophistry and nonsense. Such systems, such sciences, can subsist no where but in those incorporated socie- ties for education whose prosperity and revenue are, in great measure, inde- pendent of their reputation, and altoge- ther independent of their industry. Were there no such institutions, a gen- tleman, after going through, with appli- cation and abilities, the most complete course of education which the circum- stances of the times were supposed to afford, could not come into the world completely ignorant of everything which is the common subject of conversation among gentlemen and men of the world." " The discipline of colleges and uni- versities," says he, in another passage, " is in general contrived, not for the benefit of the students, but for the inte- rest, or, more properly speaking, for the ease, of the masters. Its object is, in all cases, to maintain the authority of the master ; and whether he neglects or per- forms his duty, to oblige the students, in all cases, to behave to him as if he per- formed it with the greatest diligence and ability. It seems to presume perfect wisdom and virtue in the one order, and the greatest weakness and folly in the other. Where the masters, however, really perform their duty, there are no examples, 1 believe, that the greater part of the students ever neglect theirs. Such is the generosity of the greater part of young men, that so far from being dis- posed to neglect or despise the instruc- tions of their master, provided he shews some serious intention of being of use to them, they are generally inclined to par- don a great deal of incorrectness in the performance of his duty, and sometimes even to conceal from the public a good deal of gross negligence/' Such are the manly and liberal doc- trines which he has put forth on this all- important topic. How unlike to the con- tracted and monkish sentiments enter- tained by many men, a great portion of whose lives has been passed within the walls of an university ; and that too in the capacity of public teachers ! He was an ardent lover of freedom, but his devotions were not paid to her as to an unknown goddess, of whose attri- butes he was ignorant, and to whom his offerings were but an idle and a gaudy worship. If he loved freedom, he under- stood, better than the lovers of freedom have always done, in what it consisted : by what institutions it might be rendered 28 LIFE OF DR. ADAM SMITH. most permanent, and its substantial blessings be more widely and equally diffused. The scorn of oppression and injustice was in him an active and dis- cerning sentiment ; and, in his ardour for the interests and happiness of man- kind, he felt alike, whether the means by which they were inflicted were legal or illegal. The poor and the weak, the humble and the unprotected, he knew had, in every age, endured more of evil from the operation of unjust laws than they have ever done from the mere violation of law. It was their condition, that is, the condition of the great mass of society, which he studied and wrote to ameliorate ; and his language never assumes a loftier or more ardent tone than when he advocates their interests, the interests of mankind at large, against some crying wrong, sanctioned, as it may happen to be, by law or charter. We might refer in proof of this to his observations on the laws against the combination of workmen, where he vindicates the poor against the power of the rich on the law of settlement, the law of entails, and the severe and contemptuous tone in which he cen- sures the spirit of commercial monopoly under every form. Nor -did he fail to visit with equal severity the sentiments in which such impolitic and unjust regu- lations have their origin. Witness the indignant manner in which he replies to the miserable complaints of those who, disposed to view every improvement in the condition of the labouring classes of society as an encroachment upon their superiors, censure every increas- ing comfort they enjoy as a luxury to which they have no right. As he repro- bates the injustice and impolicy of any attempt to retard their advancement, if such were possible ; so has he treated with still greater contempt the mon- strous and cruel paradox which has been sometimes maintained, that a liberal rate of wages relaxes the industry of the labourer, and that he never works so well as when he is ill requited for his labour. " The liberal reward of labour," says Smith, " as it is the effect of increasing wealth, so it is the cause of increasing population. To complain of it is to la- ment over the necessary effect and cause of the greatest public prosperity. As it encourages the propagation, so it increases the "industry, of the common people. The wages of labour are the encouragement of industry, which, like every other human quality, improves in proportion to the encouragement it re- ceives. Where wages are high, accord- ingly, we shall always find the workmen more active, diligent, and expeditious. In cheap years, it is pretended they are generally more idle, and in dear ones more industrious than ordinary. A plentiful subsistence, therefore, it has been concluded, relaxes, and a scanly one quickens their industry. That a little more plenty than ordinary may render some men idle cannot be doubted; but that it should have this effect upon the greater part, or that men in general should work better when they are ill fed than when they are well fed, when they are disheartened than when they are in good spirits, when they are frequently sick than when they generally are in good health, seems not very probable." . . . " Our merchants and master-manu- facturers too (he says, in another part of his work) complain much of the bad effects of high wages in raising the price, and thereby lessening the sale of their goods both at home and abroad. They say nothing concerning the bad effects of high profits. They are silent \\ii\\ regard to the pernicious effects of their own gains. They complain only of those of other people." Wealth of "Na- tions, Book I. ch. 8 9. Yet his zeal in the best of causes never made him lose sight of the end of all law the preservation of the peace of society. He takes care to shew that it is not the province of a good or a wise man to seek the establishment of his principles by violence or undue per- tinacity, and in disdain of the preju- dices and institutions of the community which he seeks to influence. " The man, whose public spirit is prompted altogether by humanity and benevolence (he says, in one of the finest passages of his writings) will re- spect the established powers and privi- leges even of individuals, and still more those of the great orders and societies into which the state is divided. Though he should consider some of them as in some measure abusive, he will content himself with moderating what he often cannot annihilate without great vio- lence. When he cannot conquer the rooted prejudices of the people by reason and persuasion, he will not attempt to subdue them by force ; but will reli- giously observe what by Cicero is justly called the divine maxim of Plato, never to use violence to his country, no more LIFE OF DR. ADAM SMITH. 29 than to bis parents. He will accommo- date, as well as he can, his public ar- rangements to the confirmed habits and prejudices of the people, and will remedy, as well as he can,*] the inconveniences which may flow from the want of those regulations which the people are averse to submit to. When he cannot establish the right, he will not disdain to amelio- rate the wrong ; but, like Solon, when he cannot establish the best system of laws, he will endeavour to establish the best that the people can bear*." Finely as he has tempered in his writings the rigour, if we may so speak, of his speculative doctrines ; and care- ful as he is at all times, by the infusion of moral sympathy, to correct any error or evil that might lurk in the logical inferences to be deduced from them ; with a sagacity in his general reason- ings, alive to the nicest shades in the conduct of the understanding and the passions ; his excellent biographer has given us reason to think that his un- premeditated opinions both of men and books were not always such as might have been looked for, from the soundness of his judgment, and the singular consistency of his principles as a philosopher. His discernment of the character of individuals was often de- fective, and apt, like his particular judgments on other occasions, to be in- fluenced by accident and humour. He seemed to be habitually inattentive to familiar objects and common occur- rences, and "has frequently exhibited instances of absence," says Mr. Stewart, " which have scarcely been surpassed by the fancy of La Bruyere." Some striking and amusing instances of this infirmity have been recently made public, by a lively and agreeable writer, from whose powers of humorous description, however, it may well be supposed they have lost nothing in the narrative.t We will mention one cir- cumstance which is recorded by Mr. Mackenzie, in illustration. When that gentleman wrote the beautiful story of La Roche, in the 'Mirror,' in which, with reference to the character of Mr. Hume, he embodied the sentiments which the good nature and benevolence of that illustrious man might have sug- gested under the circumstances ima- gined, he was particularly anxious that * Moral Sent. vol. ii. pnrt vi. sect. 2. t Vide Quart. Rev. Oa the Life of John Home, ascribed to Sir Walter Scott, there should not be a single expression in it, which could give offence or un- easiness to any friend of Mr. Hume's ; and he read the story to Dr. Smith, desiring him to say, if there was any- thing in it that he would wish to be omitted or altered. He listened to it very attentively from beginning to end, and declared that he did not find a syllable to object to, but added (with his characteristic absence of mind, says Mr. Mackenzie), that he was surprised he had never heard the anecdote before. It may be easily supposed that with such a propensity to abstraction, he did not readily fall in with the tone of gene- ral conversation, and that in conse- quence of that, and of his professional habits as a lecturer, he w r as apt to ex- press rather exclusively, the result of his own meditations, without sufficient reference at all times to the topic in hand, or the immediate purpose of its discussion ; and that his style had more of the precision of a formal discourse, than of the ease and freedom which constitute the charm of colloquial inter- course. It is reported of him too that he was occasionally more positive in the assertion of his opinions than is al- ways becoming in a philosopher, and that notwithstanding the extent and variety of his information, he erred sometimes from taking a partial and peculiar view of a subject, as it might chance to be connected at that particular moment with some passing speculation in his mind. His learning was extensive and pro- found. His study had not been con- fined to the subjects which might ap- pear to have occupied the whole labour of his life. The sciences of ethics and politics were not taken up by him, as detached and abstract branches of philosophy. They came presented to his mind as part of the greater science of human nature, to which he had always devoted himself ; and in the con- templation of which he borrowed every aid which a careful observation of the various institutions which have existed among men, their history, their lan- guage, and the monuments of their arts and letters, could afford him. But he loved literature, as he loved virtue, for its own sake, for its intrinsic beauty and worth. In its best records, those which exhibit the actions, and display the passions and sentiments of men, whether in philosophy where they are traced to their causes j in history, in 30 LIFE OF DR. ADAM SMITH. poetry, and oratory, where, under differ- ent forms, they are beheld in their operation ; amid that exhaustless variety of circumstances and vicissitude of for- tune, under which man has been seen at once an agent and a victim ; he found the everlasting materials for his speculations, the real and only data of all moral science. He did not affect to despise, economist as he was, the imperishable productions of human wit and genius, the poetry of Homer or of Milton, the eloquence of Demos- thenes, or of Fox ; because he could find in their works no argument for the theory of rent, or the doctrine of population. Nor was he pleased to think it the part of a philosopher or a philanthropist, to sneer at the domestic affections, and the social virtues, in the most comprehensive investigations which he instituted, and which had for their object the common benefit of man- kind. In his last hours he found delight in the tragedies of Euripides and Racine ; and the drama, and the principles of the dramatic art, and of poetry in general, formed a frequent and favourite topic of his conversation. He was a great advo- cate for rhyme, a more unqualified one even than Dr. Johnson, for he was ac- customed to contend for the propriety of it as well on the stage, as in all other departments of poetry*. As he loved to read it, he was accus- tomed to quote poetry, and the number of beautiful passages which he had treasured in his memory, and was in the habit of introducing in conversation, was remarkable in a man distinguished by so many higher acquisitions. His peculiar taste is best exemplified in the style of his writings, which pos- sess, even in that respect alone, merit of a very high order. If he has not (and who has ?) the grace, the " careless, in- imitable beauties, "-i 1 of Mr. Hume, it was owing in some measure to his not having mixed in such varied society ; a circumstance which, acting upon the refined taste of the latter, lent to his com- * It is well known that the two Doctors got to rather high words once at Mr. Dilly's table, where they met at dinner. Many years after this, when Johnson, 6n some; occasion, was maintaining the superiority of rhyme over blank verse, Boswell observed that he had heard Adam Smith enforce the same criticism in his lectures at Glasgow. "Sir," said Johnson, " Smith and I once met, and we did not much take to each other; Imt if I had known that the dog loved rhyme as much as you say he does, Sir, I should have huyged him," | Gibbon's Memoirs. positions that inexpressible charm, which Gibbon may be supposed to have felt, when he describes himself in his ambition to emulate him, as " closing the volume with a mixed sensation of delight and despair*." The great aim of Dr. Smith as a writer, and his great merit, is a mar- vellous perspicuity in the exposition of! J his ideas. Often diffuse, but never I prolix ; sometimes condensed, but never I entangled in his expression ; he unfolds the process of his reasonings so amply, that he leaves nothing to be supplied by his reader but a careful attention to his matter. Mr. Fox however is reported to have said of him, perhaps hastily, v that he was unnecessarily diffuse, and fond of deductions where there was no- thing to deduce. Mr. Stewart, with v < greater reserve, has ventured to hint a criticism nearly similar, and has ascribed this quality in his compositions to his early fondness for the study of the Greek geometry. His greatest defect in the " Wealth of Nations," along with some faults in i the arrangement of his subject, arises from his frequent digressions ; his long dissertations upon some incidental ques- \ tions, which frequently encumber the text, and intercept that complete and unbroken view of the subject as a whole, which a didactic author, who desires to interest and inform his reader, should always endeavour to preserve, from the first simple proposition with which he sets out, to the final de- velopement of his system in all its parts. This defect arose partly from a peculiarity in his judgment, which led him to reject the use of marginal anno- tations ; so useful in treating of many subjects, and certainly, it would seem, not the least so, in many which Dr. Smith undertook to discuss in his great work. It is curious, however, that, in the " Wealth of Nations," there are, we believe, but three or four notes, of four or five lines each, in the whole work, and these containing little more than references to authorities ; whilst, in the "Theory of Moral Sentiments," there occurs but one of considerable length, and of importance more than equal to its length, in which it is remarkable that he has embodied a piece of reason- ing, having essential reference to his system, of which it may be said, indeed, to furnish one of the strongest supports, * Gibbon's Memoirs, LIFE OF DR. ADAM SMITH. 31 and the clearest illustrations to be found, perhaps, in the whole work.* t There is no doubt that he bestowed great care upon the style and composi- tion of his works. And after all his practice as a writer, he is said never to have acquired that facility which is often attained by it, but to have written as slowly, and with as much labour at last, as he had ever done. This how- ever was the effect, in some measure, of the nature of his speculations, and the general character and conduct of his understanding. In all his works, though we find passages of exceeding eloquence, force, and beauty, he is most distinguished for being a deliberate reasoner, and a candid and cautious thinker. It was usual with him, when employed in composition, not to write with his own hand, but to walk about his room dictating to an amanuensis. He had collected, in the course of his life, a very valuable library, which he bequeathed to his cousin, Mr. David Douglas. As he was a lover of books, he was more attentive to their condition, and the outward fashion of them, than is usual with scholars in general. When Mr. Smellie once called upon him, and was admiring a splendid copy of some classic author, and the general 'elegance of his shelves, " You see, Sir," said Smith, " if in nothing else, I am a beau at least in my books." Besides the two great works of which we have spoken, and on which the fame of Dr. Smith will for ever rest, we must not omit to mention the very ori- ginal and ingenious dissertation on the formation of languages, which was ap- pended to the early editions of the "Moral Sentiments," and still continues to be published along with that work ; and the few masterly, but unfinished sketches which were published shortly after his death. The tract on languages is a piece of extensive learning and profound observation; but though Mr. Stewart * Dr. Smith was betrayed into this rejection of marginal writing, by his classic adherence to the plan of composition of the ancients, who were equally ignorant of the use and the abuse of our modern practice ; but many of whose works would evidently have been much improved by a moderate adoption of it ; and every reader of the " Wealth of Nations " must have felt how much he would have been re- lieved in the study of this great work, if many por- tions of it, which might be pointed out, had been re- moved from the text to the margin, to be consulted in their proper places, and not allowed to interrupt, as they often do, a chain of profound and subtle rea- soning, or an interesting deduction of consequences of the highest importance to the establishment of the point in question. f Vide "Theory of Moral Sent.," Part ii. Sect. 1. has bestowed high praise upon it, it seems hardly to have attracted the no- tice it deserves. The longest and most important of the posthumous essays, is entitled a " History of Astronomy," in which the author proposes to illustrate the principles which suggest and direct philosophical inquirers, by an account of the origin and progress of that inte- resting science. The same train of thought was pursued in two shorter and more imperfect essays, on the " History of the Ancient Physics," and that of the " Ancient Logic and Metaphysics." Along with these is a disquisition of very great beauty, entitled, with his ac- customed amplitude of language, " On the Nature of that Imitation which takes place, in what are called the Imitative Arts ;" and another, on the " External Senses " all abounding in great ori- ginality of thought, exquisite illustra- tion, and expression the most expanded and luminous. In the " Sketches of the History of Philosophy," we find the same turn and tendency of mind which he has displayed in his greater works ; a disposition which delighted to ascribe the first exercise of the imagination and the intellect, not to any view of profit or advantage in its results, but to a natural desire to fill up the void which was felt by the mind, from its inability to comprehend and connect together the various, and, as it would seem, the disjointed appearances which present themselves to its contem- plation in the scenes and operations of nature. " Philosophy," says Dr. Smith, " is nothing but the science of the con- necting principle of nature." It is an art addressed to the imagination, which seeks to adapt and reconcile to that faculty some theory, more or less satis- factory, of the phenomena, which, at first view, are void of order and connexion, and of meaning. The superiority of the Newtonian philosophy, he maintains, consists only in this, that it is the most pleasing solution of the great pro- blem of nature which has yet been given that it connects more easily and more simply the appearances of the heavens in the fancy not that it is by any means to be regarded as unfolding the actual chains which nature makes use of to bind together her several operations. In the few observations which have been made upon the writings of this illustrious man, as in the short extracts introduced from them, it has been less our object, as will be seen, to dwell upon 32 LIFE OF DR. ADAM SMITH, their merits 'with reference to any sys- tem, either of morals or economy, or to the soundness or fallacy of any particu- lar doctrine, than to point out the admi- rable spirit which animates every part of that system ; and those principles to which he always appeals, as the legiti- mate sources whence alone we can draw the materials of all moral and political institutes. To have done more than this, to have given even a very brief abstract of his system, in either of his two great works, would have far ex- ceeded the limits of the present memoir ; would require, and might well deserve, a separate treatise. What has been attempted, however im- perfectly, may not be altogether without its use, at least until propositions in the moral, as in the mathematical sciences, shall admit of demonstration. AVhen that shall be the case, and the results of our reasonings can be submitted to so deci- sive a test, the sources whence we derive them, and the mode in which they are conducted, may be alike indifferent, and cannot assuredly affect in the slightest degree the truths demonstrated. Till then, however, it must be considered as no unimportant part of that species of philosophy which, in the expressive lan- guage of Lord Bacon, comes home to men's business and bosoms, to tem- per its doctrines by moderation and modesty ; to engage the sympathies on our side of those we undertake to teach, and not to repel them ; to endeavour to shew, if we can, that the doctrines we inculcate may be traced to a higher wisdom than that of man, by being in conformity with the rules by which nature seems to work, and in further- ance of principles which she has evi- dently implanted for the accomplishment of her own great ends. No philosopher has so constantly borne in mind as Dr. Smith, that in the moral, as in the physical constitution and frame of man, nature has made cer- tain" provisions for his attainment to virtue and to happiness, which the igno- rant may overlook, and the arrogant may disregard, but with which the wise will only study to co-operate. And all the precepts we can put forth will de- rive their best sanction, and afford the strongest presumption in their favour by their being shewn to be in unison with those simple instincts of our nature, by which alone, as individuals, we are first taught to apprehend a distinction be- twixt good and evil,* and which, in the obvious arrangements they suggest for the social union, were equally intended by our great Creator as lights to the economist and the legislator for the framing of those laws and institutions which take place in the wider and more complicated associations of men. It was in this excellent and truly enlightened spirit, that Smith, by applying the ex perimental method of reasoning to moral subjects, attained the vantage ground of that higher philosophy of which it is the glory of Bacon to have pointed out the road ; by which Newton ascended to the discovery of the sublimest truths in physics ; and by the careful cultivation of which alone, if ever, it may be hoped, that the moral and political sciences will be placed on a foundation equally enduring, and when knowledge in them will more surely become power to man, as their reference to his happiness and advancement is more obvious and im- mediate. * It has become usual of late, even in moral and political discourses, to regard all reference to autho- rity as marks of a poor and illogical understanding. In the physical sciences, those more especially which rest upon mathematics, (as we have said in the text) the argument from authority is of course out of the question. It is different we conceive in other sub- jects ; and though we have little respect for an hypothesis, however supported, which appeals from the universal sense and feelings of mankind, an au- thority that appeals to that sense and those feelings is entitled to a good deal, and for our parts we should be satisfied to take our chance of error, in a question concerning the principle of moral appro- bation for instance, with Hume and Smith, and Stewart and Mackintosh. WORKS ON POLITICAL ECONOMY, PUBLISHED BY Mr. MURRAY, ALBEMAKLE-STREET. 1. npHE LAW of POPULATION. A Treatise in Six Books, in -I- Disproof of the Superfeciindity of Human Beings ; and developing the Real Principle of their Increase. By MICHAEL THOMAS SADLER, M.P. 2 vols. 8vo. 30*. 2. IRELAND ; its EVILS, and their REMEDIES. Being a Re- futation of the Errors of the Emigration Committee and others, touching that Country. To which is prefixed a Synopsis of an Original Treatise, about to be published on the Law of Population ; developing the real principles on which it is universally regulated. By MICHAEL THOMAS SADLER, T$l7T7~7Second iilditioJJ, SVQ. 12s. Dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed." 3. IRELAND and its ECONOMY. Being- the result of Observations made on a Tour through the Country in the Autumn of 1829. By J. E. BICHENO, Esq. F. R. S., Sec. of Linn. Society, &c. &c. ,, Post 8vo. 8s. 6d. 4. THREE LECTURES on the COST of obtaining MONEY, and on some Effects of PRIVATE and GOVERNMENT PAPER MONEY, delivered- Ijefore the University of Oxford, in Trinity Term, 1829. By NASSAU WILLIAM SENIOR, A. M., late Fellow of Mag. Col., Prof, of Political Econ. In 8vo*. 3s. 6d. 5. On FINANCIAL REFORM. By Sir HENRY PARNELL, Bart. Second Edition, in crown 8vo. 9s. 6d. 6. An ESSAY on the PRINCIPLE of POPULATION ; or, a View of its past and present Effects on Human Happiness : with an Inquiry into our Prospects ring the future removal or mitigation of the Evils which it contains. By the Rev. T. R. MALTHUS, late Fellow of Jesus' College,_Cambriclge, and Professor of History and Political Economy in the East India College, Hertfordshire. A Fifth Edition, with im- portant Additions and Corrections. 3 vols. 8vo. 36*. 7. DEFINITIONS in POLITICAL ECONOMY, preceded by an Inquiry into the Rules which ought to guide Political Economists in the Definition and Application of their Terms ; with Remarks on the Deviations from their Rules in practice. By the Rev. T. R. MALTHUS. Post 8vo. 7s. 6d. In the Press, 8. The PROGRESS of SOCIETY. By the late ROBERT HAMILTON, LL.D., F.R. S.E., Professor of Mathematics in the Marischal College and University of Aberdeen; Author of "An Enquiry concerning the National Debt." Contents: General Principles.!. Of Human Welfare. 2. Sketch of the Progress of Society. 3. Of ; Wealth and Industry. 4. Of Rewards for Inventions. 5. Of Capital. 6. Of Money. 7. Of Value and Price. 8. Component Parts of Value. 9. Of Rent. 10. Of Tithes. 11. Distribution of Wealth. 12. Equalization of Wealth. 13. Of Property. 14. Education of the Lower Ranks. 15. Effect of Numbers on a State. 16, On Commerce. 17. On Population. 18. Artificial State of Society. 19. Paper Currency. 20. Corn Trade. Concluding Ob- servations. 2 vols. 8vo. Dr. Hamilton had been engaged for many years in writing this Work, and continued to revise and improve it until within a few days of his death. 9. SIR THOMAS MORE. A Series of Colloquies on the Progress and Prospects of Society. With Engravings. By ROBERT SOUTHEY, Esq., LL.D., Poet Laureate. With a Portrait of Sir Thomas M'ore, and Six Views, 2 vols, 8vo., 30*. A ne\v Edition, " Respice, aspice, prospice, ADVERTISEMENTS, LIBRARIES in course of Publication by Messrs. 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