A EUROPEAN MAGAZINE, AND LONDON REVIEW, FOR MARCH 1802. ACCOUNT OF ADAM SMITH, LL. D. (WITH A PORTRAIT.) DAM SMITH Was born at Kirkaldy, on the 5th of June 1723, a few months after the death of his father, who was Comptroller of the Customs at that place. His constitution was fickly and infirm, and required and received all the tender folicitude of his surviving parent. Her affection was repaid by every attention that filial gratitude could dic. late during the long period of fixty An accident happened to him, when be was about three years old, d, of too terefting a nature be omitted. years. to by his in He mother to Mr. had been carried Strathenry, on a visit to his uncle, Douglas, and was one day amusing himielf alone at the door of the house, when he was stolen by a party of that fet of vagrants who are known in Scot. land by by the name of Tinkers. Luckily he was foon missed by his uncle, who hearing that fome vagrants had pasled, pursued them, with what assistance he could find, till he overtook them in Leslie Wood; and was the happy inArument of preferving to the world a genius destined to extend the bounda Pies of science, and to reform the commercial policy of Europe. Mr. Smith received the first rudi. ments of his education at the school of Kirkaldy, which was then taught by Mr. David Miller, whose name deferves to be recorded on account of the ami nent men whom that very obfcure ses minary produced while under his di, rection. Mr. Ofwald of Dunikeir, Dr. John Oswald, Bishop of Raphoe, and the Rev. Dr. John Drysdale, of the University of Edinburgh, were of this number; all of them nearly contem, porary with Mr. Smith, and united with him, through life, in the closest ties of friendthip. Among these companions of his ear lieit years, Mr. Smith toon attracted notice, by his passion for books, and the extraordinary powers of his mẹ mory. The weakness of his bodily constitution prevented him from partaking in their more active amusements; but he was much beloved by them on account of his temper, which, though warm, was to an uncommon degree friendly and generous. Even then he remained with him through life, speaking to himself when alone, and of absence in company. was remarkable for those habits which of From the grammar-school of Kirkaldy, he was fent in 1737, to the Uni verfity of Glasgow, where he remained till 1740, when he went lege, Oxford, as an exhibitioner on Snell's foundation. to Baliol Col Dr. Maclaine, claine, of the he Hague, who was a fellow-student of Mr. Smith's at Glasgow, faid, some years ago, that our Author's favourite pursuits while at that University were mathematics and natural philosophy; and Mr. Stewart remembers to have heard his father remind Mr. Smith of a geometrical problem, of confiderable dithculty, about w out which he w was occupied ar the time when their acquaintance com menced, and which had been proposed to him as an exercise by the celebrated Dr. Simpson. These, however, were certainly not the sciences in which he was formed to excel; nor did they long divert him from purfaits more congenial to his mind. The study of human nature, in all its branche, more particularly in the political history of mankind, opened a boundless field to his curiofity and ambition. To this study, diversified ar his leifure hours by the less severe oc cupations of polite literature, he seems to have devoted himself almost entirely from the time of his removal to Oxe ford. No information appears to have been collected with refpect to that part of his youth which was spent in England. He has been heard to fay, that he employed himself frequently in the prac Ya tice of translation (particularly from the French), with a view to the improvement of his own style and he used often to express a favourable opinion of the utility of fuch exercises to all who cultivate the art of composi tion. After a refidence at Oxford of seven years, he returned to Kirkaldy, and lived two years with his mother, en gaged in study, but without any fixed plan for his future life. He had been originally destined for the Church of England, and with that view had been sent to Oxford, but not finding the ecclefiaftical profession suitable to his tafte, he chose to confult, in this inftance, his own inclination, in preference to the wishes of his friends. In the year 1748, he fixed his refidence at Edinburgh, and during that and the following years read lectures on rhetoric and belles lettres, under the patronage of Lord Kames. About this time, too, he contracted a very intimate friendship, which continued without interruption till his death, with Mr. Alexander Wedderburn, now Lord Roslin, and with Mr. William Johnstone, now Sir William Pultney. At what particular period his acquaintance with Mr. David Hume commenced cannot be ascertained; but from fome papers now in the poffeffion of Mr. Hume's nephew, their acquaintance seems to have grown into friendship before the year 1752. It was a friendship on both fides founded on the admiration of genius and the love of fimplicity, and which forms an interesting circumstance in the history of each of these eminent men, from the ambition which both have thewn to record it to pofterity. In 1751, he was elected Profeffor of Logic in the University of Glasgow; and the year following, he was removed to the Professorship of Moral Philofophy in the fame University, ity, upon the death of Mr. Thomas Craigie, the Immediate fuccessor of Dr. Hutcheson. In this fituation he remained thirteen years; a period he used frequently to Jook back to, as the most useful and happy of his life. Of Mr. Smith's lectures while a Profeffor at Glasgow, no part has been. preferved, excepting what he himself published in the Theory of Moral Senti and i in the Wealth of Nations. While Mr. Smith was thus diftinishing himself by his zeal and ability A-public reacher, he was gradually laying the foundation of a more exteri five reputation, by preparing for the press his system of morals. The first edition of this work appeared in 1759, under the title of The Theory of Moral Sentiments. Hitherto Mr. Smith had remained unknown to the world as an Author; nor does it appear that he had made a trial of his powers in any anonymous publications, excepting in a periodical work, called The Edinburgh Review, which was begun in the year 1755, by fome Gentlemen of distinguithed abilftles, but which they were prevented by other engagements from carrying farther than the two first numbers. On the Theory of Moral Sentiments Mr. Stewart presents the public with fome ingenious remarks, but too long for eur present purpose; which are followett by a letter of Mr. Hume's to the Author, on the subject of that work. This also we shall omit, as it has already appeared in some periodical publications. After the printing of the Theory, Mr. Smith remained four years at Glasgow, discharging his official duties with unabated vigour, and with increasing re putation. During that time, the plan of his lectures underwent a confiderable change. His ethical doctrines, of which he had now published so valuable a part, occupied a much finaller portion of the course than formerly; and accordingly his attention was naturally directed to a more complete illustration of the principles of jurisprudence and of political economy. Towards the end of 1763, Mr. Smith received an invitation from Mr. Charles Townshend to accompany the Duke of Buccleugh on his travels; and the libe ral terms in which the proposal was made to him, added to the strong defire he had felt of visiting the Continent of Europe, induced him to resign his office at Glasgow. With the connection which he was led to form in confequence of this change in his situation, he had reason to be fatisfied in an uncommon degree, and he always fpoke of it with pleasure and gratitude... Mr. Smith joined the Duke of Bucs cleugh at London early in the year 1764, and fet out with him for the Continent in the month of March following. At Dover they were met by Sir James Macdonald, who accompa nied them to Paris, and with whom Mr. Smith laid the foundations of friendship, which he always mentioned ments with ۱ with great sensibility, and of which he In this first visit to Paris the Duke of From Thoulouse they went, by a pretty extensive tour, through the South of France, to Geneva. Here they passed two months. The late Earl Stanhope, for whose learning and worth Mr. Smith entertained a fincere refpect, was then an inhabitant of that Republic. About Christmas 1765 they returned to Paris, and remained there till Ostober following. The society in which Mr. Smith spent these ten months may be conceived from the advantages he enjoyed, in consequence of the recommendations of Mr. Hume. Turgot, Quesnai, Neckar, D'Alembert, Helvetius, Marmontel, Madame Riusboni, were among the number of his ac quaintance; and some of them he continued ever afterwards to reckon among his friends. From Madame D'Anville, the respectable mother of the late excellent and much-lamented Duke of Rochefoucauld, he received many attentions, which he always recollected with peculiar gratitude. The following letter, while it serves as a memorial of Mr. Smith's connections with this family, is so expressive of the virtuous and liberal mind of the writer, that we shall present our readers with a tranflation of it. "Paris, 3 Mar. 1778. "The defire of being brought to your recollection, when one has had the honour, Sir, of being acquainted with you, should appear to you a very natural fentiment. Permit my mother and myself to embrace, for that purpofe, the opportunity of a new edition of the Maxims of the Duke of Rochefoucauld, of which we take the liberty of presenting you a copy. You ice that we retain no malignity, fince the fault that you have found with him in the Theory of Moral Sentiments does not prevent us from fending you his work. I was very near doing still amore; for I had the temerity perhaps to undertake a transation of your Theory; but as foon as I had finished the firit part, I obtained a fight of the tranflation of Mont. l'Abbé Blavet; and I have been obliged to renounce the pleasure which I thould have enjoyed of introducing into our language one of the best compositions of yours. "In such a case it would have been necessary to have undertaken a justifi. cation of my ancestor. Perhaps this might not have been difficult; first to excuse him, by saying, that he had feen mankind only in a Court, and in Civil War, two theatres on which they are certainly worse than elsewhere; and after. wards to justify, by the perfo personal conduct of the author, principles which are certainly too much generalised in his work. He has taken a part for the whole; and because those whom he had most frequently before his eyes were actuated by self-love, he has made this the general motive of the conduct of men. Upon the whole, though his work deserves to be opposed on fome accounts, it is notwithstanding estimable even in the essential parts, and very much so in the form and manner. "Permit me to ask you, Whether we shall foon have a complete edition of the works of your illustrious friend Mr. Hume? We have sincerely regret. ted his loss. "Accept, I entreat you, the fincere expression of those sentiments of esteem and attachment with which I have the honour to be, Sir, your very humble, and very obedient servant, "THE DUKE OF ROCHEFOUCAULD." Mr. Smith's last intercourse with this excellent man was in the year 1789, when he informed him, by means of a friend who happened to bethenat Paris, that in the future editions of his Theory the name of Rochefoucauld should be no longer classed with that of- Mande ville. In the enlarged edition accordingly of that work, published a thort time before his death, he has fupprefled his cenfure of the Author of the Maxims, who seems, indeed (however exceptionable some of his principles may be). to have been actuated, both in his life writings, by motives very different from those of Mandeville. and In Oct. 1766, the Duke of Buccleugh returned to London. His Grace, to whom the Biographer is indebted for several particulars in the foregoing nar rative, thus expresses himself in a letter. "In October 1166 we returned to Lon don, after having spent near three ye together, without the flightest difay 2 ment or coolness ;-on my part with every advantage that could be expected from the fociety of fuch a man. We continued to live in friendship till the hour of his death; and I shall always remain with the impression of having lost a friend whom loved and respected, not only for his great talents, but for every private virtue." The retirement in which Mr. Smith passed his next ten years, formed a Itriking contrast' to the unfettled mode of life he had been for some time accuf. romed to. During the whole of this period (with the exception of a few vifits to Edinburgh and London) he remained with his mother at Kiskaldy, occupied habitually in intente study, but unbending his mind at times in the company of some of his old schoolfellows, whose sober wishes had attached them to the place of their birth. In the society of fuch men Mr. Smith delighted; and to them he was endeared, not only by his fimple and unaffuming manners, but by the perfect knowledge they all poffelfed of those domestic virtues which had diftinguished him from his infancy. At length (in the beginning of the year 1776) Mr. Smith accounted to the world for his longretreat, by the publi. cation of his Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. Of the originality of this work, concerning which fome doubts have arifen, as if he had borrowed it from the writings of the French Economists, the ingenious Biographer observes, in a Memoir on this Effay, that Mr. Smith's political lectures, comprehending the fundamental principles of his Inquiry, were delivered at Glasgow as early as the Year 1752 or 1753; at a period, furely, when there existed no French perform ance on the subject that could be of much ufe to him in guiding his refearches. About two years after the publication of the Wealth of Nations, Mr. Smith was appointed one of the Commiffioners of his Majesty's Customs in Scotland; a preferment which, in his estimation, derived an additional value from its being bestowed on him at the request of the Duke of Buccleugh. The greater part of these two years he pafled in London, in a fociety too extenfive and varied to afford him any opportunity of indulging, his tafte for study. His time, however, was not loft to himself; for much of it was spent with some of the first names in English literature. in confequence of Mr. Smith's ap شق pointment to the Board of Customs, he removed, in 1778, to Edinburgh, where he spent the last twelve years of his life; enjoying an affluence which was more than equal to all his wants; and what was to him of still greater value, the prospect of palling the remainder of his days among the companions of his youth. His mother, who, though now in extreme old age, still poslelled a confiderable degree of health, and retained all her faculties unimpaired, accompa nied him to town; and his coufin, Miss Jane Douglas (who had been formerly a member of his family at Glafgow, and for whom he had always felt the affection of a brother), while the divided with him those tender attentions which her aunt's infirmities required, relieved him of a charge for which he was peculiarly ill qualified, by her friendly superintendance of his domestic economy. The acceffion to his income which his new office brought him, enabled him to gratify, to a much greater extent than his former circumstances admitted of, the natural generofity of his difpofition; and the state of his funds at the time of his death, compared with his very moderate establish. ment, confirmed beyond a doubt, what his intimate acquaintances had often fufpected, that a large proportion of his annual favings were allotted to offices of fecret charity. A small, but excellent library, which he had gradually formed with great judgment in the felection; and a fimple, though hofpitable table, where, without the formality of an invitation, he was always happy to receive his friends, were the only expences that could be confidered as his own. Tire change in his habits, which his removal to Edinburgh produced, was not equally favourable to his literary pursuits. During the first years of his refidence in this city, his studies seemed to be entirely fufpended; and his paf. Gon for letters ferved only to amufe his leifure, and to animate ate his conver. fation. The infirmities of age, of which the very early began to feel the approaches, reminded him at last, when it was too late, of what he yet owed to the public and to his own fame. The principal materials of the works which he had announced had been long ago collected, and little probably was wanting but a few years of health and retirement, to bestow on them a fyftematical arrangement; and the ornaments |
