‘I hate biography’ was the confession of Dugald Stewart (1753–1828) in a letter of 1797, but it appears that of the three pieces of this kind which he wrote for presentation to the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the one on Adam Smith was most to his taste ( Works, ed. Hamilton, x. lxxv, n. 1).
Indeed, as a member of Smith’s circle, and like him a Scots professor of moral philosophy, inheriting and transmitting the same intellectual tradition, Stewart was a logical choice as a memorialist of Smith, and he must have felt some affinity for this project.
The first news of it comes in a letter of 10 August 1790 to Smith’s heir, David Douglas, in which John Millar, distinguished Professor of Civil Law at Glasgow University, and a former pupil of Smith, welcomes the idea of publishing the posthumous essays (EPS), and states: ‘It will give me the greatest pleasure to contribute any hints to Mr Stuart with regard to Mr Smiths professorial talents, or any other particular you mention, while he remained at Glasgow’ (Glasgow University Library, MS. Gen. 1035/178). True to his word, Millar sent ‘some particulars about Dr. Smith’ to Stewart in December of the same year, and on 17 August 1792 the latter reported to the publisher Thomas Cadell as follows: ‘Mr Smith’s papers with the Account of his life will be ready for the press the beginning of next winter’ (National Library of Scotland, MS. 5319, f. 34). Cadell offered terms for the book to Henry Mackenzie, one of the ‘privy council’ advising Douglas about the publication, on 21 December 1792 (GUL, MS. Gen. 1035/177), and Stewart wrote to Cadell on 13 March of the following year to say that he had finished the ‘Account’ and was ready to send it to the press ‘immediately’. (In fact, he read it at meetings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh on 21 January and 18 March 1793.) In the same letter to Cadell, Stewart mentions that neither the RSE Transactions nor EPS is likely to appear ‘this Season’, and he asks if a separate publication could be considered: ‘more especially, as [my papers] have Swelled to Such a Size, that I suspect they must be printed in an abridged form in the Transactions’ (NLS, MS. 5319, ff. 35–6).
As matters turned out, the first edition of the ‘Account’ was published in the third volume of the RSE Transactions (1794), and when EPS was published in 1795, under the editorship of Joseph http://oll.libertyfund.org/Texts/LFBooks/Smith0232/GlasgowEdition/PhilosophicalSubjects...
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Black and James Hutton, Smith’s literary executors, the ‘Account’ was printed as the first piece, with some minor changes from the RSE text. In 1810, Stewart withdrew from active teaching at Edinburgh University because of failing health, and among other projects undertook the revision of his RSE papers for publication as Biographical Memoirs of Adam Smith, William Robertson, and Thomas Reid (1811).
In the preface to this book, the author stated his belief that for Smith and Reid he had nearly exhausted all the information available, and that he had been induced to connect ‘with the slender thread of [his] narration a variety of speculative discussions and illustration’ (vi). These provide a useful commentary on some of Smith’s ideas, and include such valuable material as Millar’s description of Smith’s course of lectures at Glasgow (I.16–22). Also, discussing Smith’s thought in relation to that of the French economists, Stewart presented a fragment of a paper written by Smith in 1755, in which some of his leading ideas are outlined (IV.25). Stewart’s version of both documents is all that has survived, the originals perhaps being destroyed with Stewart’s own papers by his son when suffering from paranoia ( Works, viii. x–xi; x. iii). In the preface to the Memoirs, Stewart further states that he left the text of the ‘Account of Smith’ as it was (i.e. in 1794–5), ‘with the exception of some trifling verbal corrections’, and added to it notes that were ‘entirely new’ (vii).
In the same year as the Memoirs appeared, Stewart published an edition of Smith’s Works (1811–12), incorporating in the fifth volume the Memoirs text of the ‘Account’, but omitting at the conclusion two paragraphs describing EPS, and one dealing with the preference of Smith and his circle for the plain style of ‘Mr’ rather than the honorific ‘Doctor’. In a letter to ?William Davies, Cadell’s partner, dated 26 July 1810, Stewart suggests that since Smith’s Works are to be printed in London, they should be put ‘into the hands of some corrector’ whose accuracy can be relied on,
‘desiring him to follow the text of the last Editions published before Mr Smith’s death’. Stewart will correct EPS himself, and he asks that the ‘Account of Smith’ be printed last, ‘as I have some Slight alterations to make on it, and intend to add a few paragraphs to some of the Sections’.
Stewart continues that ‘in a Week or two I propose to begin to print the 4to Edition of Lives [i.e.
Memoirs]’, presumably in Edinburgh under his own eye (NLS, MS. 5319, ff.39–40).
Subsequently, Stewart’s Works (1854–60) were themselves edited by Sir William Hamilton (1788–1856) at the end of his life, and the ‘Account of Smith’ found its place in the tenth volume (1858). The advertisement to this volume, written by John Veitch (1829–94), states that the memoirs of Smith, Robertson, and Reid were ‘printed under . . . Hamilton’s revision and superintendence, from private copies belonging to [Stewart] which contained a few manuscript additions by him’ (x. vii). One such ‘private copy’ survives in Edinburgh University Library (MS.
Df. 4. 52*), consisting of an EPS text of the ‘Account of Smith’ with marginal corrections in Stewart’s hand (pp. 46, 57, 63) and indicators for notes, followed by Notes A to I of the present edition, all in Stewart’s hand save that of Note D, which is in that of an amanuensis. Stewart must have worked on this ‘private copy’ after 1821, because Note E refers to Morellet’s Mémoires published in that year.
All the ‘last additions’ of the EUL ‘private copy’ are incorporated in Hamilton’s text of the ‘Account of Smith’, with the trifling exception of the ‘la’ in ‘la Rochefoucauld’ (303, below), and it is tempting to use the 1858 edition as the copy–text for our present purpose. However, in his Memoir of Hamilton (1869), John Veitch prints letters indicating that Hamilton was fatally ill http://oll.libertyfund.org/Texts/LFBooks/Smith0232/GlasgowEdition/PhilosophicalSubjects...
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during the editing of Stewart’s Works, and was assisted by a Miss Petre, formerly governess to his daughter (362–3). Indeed, Hamilton died before the tenth volume appeared and its publication was supervised by Veitch. In view of these facts, it has been thought best to make the 1811
Memoirs version of the ‘Account of Smith’ the copy–text for this edition, as the one containing the fullest amount of biographical material directly authorized by Stewart himself, also as the text he personally revised for publication. A letter of 1798 by Stewart makes the claim, at least, that he read proof carefully: ‘The very great alterations and corrections which I have been in the habit of making during the time that the printing of my books was going on, put it out of my power to let anything out of my hands till it has undergone the very last revisal’ ( Works, x. xxxi, n. 4.).
Within each section of the text paragraphs have been numbered to facilitate references and citations. Asterisks and daggers point Stewart’s notes, and the signal 5 after a note indicates that it comes from Hamilton’s 1858 edition. Superscript letters refer the reader to textual notes preserving substantive readings from the editions of 1794 and 1795, identified as 1 and 2. The author’s last additions of the EUL ‘private copy’ mentioned above are identified by that very phrase. The modern convention for indicating quotations has been adopted, and translations of Latin quotations have been supplied, in some cases from Stewart’s Works edited by Hamilton. The present editor’s notes are numbered consecutively, with material added by him placed within round brackets, and the General Editors’ notes are placed within square brackets.
Whereas Smith ‘considered every species of note as a blemish or imperfection; indicating, either an idle accumulation of superfluous particulars, or a want of skill and comprehension in the general design’ (Stewart, Works, x.169–70), Stewart followed the practice of Robertson in placing discursive notes at the end of the text. For the sake of convenience, these endnotes have been retained below, with the ‘last additions’, principally D and E, duly identified.
List of the Editions of ‘Account of the Life and Writings of Adam Smith, LL.D.’
1
1794
Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (T. Cadell: London;
J. Dickson and E. Balfour: Edinburgh), iii.55–137.
2
1795
EPS, ix–cxxiii.
Biographical memoirs of Adam Smith, LL.D. of William Robertson,
3
1811
D.D. and of Thomas Reid, D.D. (W. Creech, Bell and Bradfute, and
A. Constable: Edinburgh; F. and C. Rivington et al. [including
Cadell and Davies]: London), 3–152.
The Works of Adam Smith, LL.D., ed. Dugald Stewart, 5 vols. (T.
4
1811
Cadell and W. Davies et al.: London; W. Creech, and Bell and
Bradfute: Edinburgh), v.403–552.
The Collected Works of Dugald Stewart, Esq., F.R.S., ed. Sir
5
1858
William Hamilton, Bart., 11 vols. (Thomas Constable and Co.:
Edinburgh; Little, Brown, and Co.: Boston), x.1–98.
ACCOUNT OF THE LIFE AND WRITINGS OF ADAM SMITH, LL.D.
FROM THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH
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[READ BY MR STEWART, JANUARY 21, AND MARCH 18, 1793]
SECTION I FROM MR SMITH’S BIRTH TILL THE PUBLICATION OF THE THEORY OF
MORAL SENTIMENTS
ADAM SMITH, author of the Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, was the 1
*
son of Adam Smith, comptroller of the customs at Kirkaldy , and of Margaret Douglas, daughter of Mr Douglas of Strathenry. He was the only child of the marriage, and was born at Kirkaldy on the 5th of June 1723, a few months after the death of his father.
His constitution during infancy was infirm and sickly, and required all the tender solicitude of his 2
surviving parent. She was blamed for treating him with an unlimited indulgence; but it produced no unfavourable effects on his temper or his dispositions:—and he enjoyed the rare satisfaction of being able to repay her affection, by every attention that filial gratitude could dictate, during the long period of sixty years.
An accident which happened to him when he was about three years old, is of too interesting a 3
nature to be omitted in the account of so valuable a life. He had been carried by his mother to Strathenry, on a visit to his uncle Mr Douglas, and was one day amusing himself alone at the door of the house, when he was stolen by a party of that set of vagrants who are known in Scotland by the name of tinkers. Luckily he was soon missed by his uncle, who, hearing that some vagrants had passed, pursued them, with what assistance he could find, till he overtook them in Leslie wood; and was the happy instrument of preserving to the world a genius, which was destined, not only to extend the boundaries of science, but to enlighten and reform the commercial policy of Europe.
The school of Kirkaldy, where Mr Smith received the first rudiments of his education, was then 4
taught by Mr David Miller, a teacher, in his day, of considerable reputation, and whose name deserves to be recorded, on account of the eminent men whom that very obscure seminary
*
produced while under his direction. Of this number were Mr Oswald of Dunikeir ; his brother, Dr John Oswald, afterwards Bishop of Raphoe; and our late excellent colleague, the Reverend Dr John Drysdale: all of them nearly contemporary with Mr Smith, and united with him through life
†
by the closest ties of friendship.—One of his school–fellows is still alive ; and to his kindness I am principally indebted for the scanty materials which form the first part of this narrative.
Among these companions of his earliest years, Mr Smith soon attracted notice, by his passion for 5
books, and by the extraordinary powers of his memory. 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 was remarkable for those habits which remained with him through life, of speaking to himself when alone, and of absence in company.
From the grammar–school of Kirkaldy, he was sent, in 1737, to the university of Glasgow, where 6
‡
he remained till 1740, when he went to Baliol college, Oxford, as an exhibitioner on Snell’s foundation.
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Dr Maclaine of the Hague, who was a fellow–student of Mr Smith’s at Glasgow, told me some 7
years ago, that his favourite pursuits while at that university were mathematics and natural philosophy; and I remember to have heard my father remind him of a geometrical problem of considerable difficulty, about which he was occupied at the time when their acquaintance commenced, 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 8
long divert him from pursuits more congenial to his mind. What Lord Bacon says of Plato may be justly applied to him: ‘Illum, licet ad rempublicam non accessisset, tamen naturâ et inclinatione omnino ad res civiles propensum, vires eo praecipue intendisse; neque de Philosophia Naturali admodum sollicitum esse; nisi quatenus ad Philosophi nomen et celebritatem tuendam, et ad
*
majestatem quandam moralibus et civilibus doctrinis addendam et aspergendam sufficeret .’ The study of human nature in all its branches, more particularly of the political history of mankind, opened a boundless field to his curiosity and ambition; and while it afforded scope to all the various powers of his versatile and comprehensive genius, gratified his ruling passion, of contributing to the happiness and the improvement of society. To this study, diversified at his leisure hours by the less severe occupations of polite literature, he seems to have devoted himself almost entirely from the time of his removal to Oxford; but he still retained, and retained even in advanced years, a recollection of his early acquisitions, which not only added to the splendour of his conversation, but enabled him to exemplify some of his favourite theories concerning the natural progress of the mind in the investigation of truth, by the history of those sciences in which the connection and succession of discoveries may be traced with the greatest advantage. If I am not mistaken too, the influence of his early taste for the Greek geometry may be remarked in the elementary clearness and fulness, bordering sometimes upon prolixity, with which he frequently states his political reasonings.—The lectures of the profound and eloquent Dr Hutcheson, which he had attended previous to his departure from Glasgow, and of which he always spoke in terms of the warmest admiration, had, it may be reasonably presumed, a
†
considerable effect in directing his talents to their proper objects .
I have not been able to collect any information with respect to that part of his youth which was 9
spent in England. I have heard him say, that he employed himself frequently in the practice 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 such exercises, to all who cultivate the art of composition. It is much to be regretted, that none of his juvenile attempts in this way have been preserved; as the few specimens which his writings contain of his skill as a translator, are sufficient to shew the eminence he had attained in a walk of literature, which, in our country, has been so little frequented by men of genius.
It was probably also at this period of his life, that he cultivated with the greatest care the study of 10
languages. The knowledge he possessed of these, both ancient and modern, was uncommonly extensive and accurate; and, in him, was subservient, not to a vain parade of tasteless erudition, but to a familiar acquaintance with every thing that could illustrate the institutions, the manners, and the ideas of different ages and nations. How intimately he had once been conversant with the more ornamental branches of learning; in particular, with the works of the Roman, Greek, French, and Italian poets, appeared sufficiently from the hold which they kept of his memory, after all the
*
different occupations and inquiries in which his maturer faculties had been employed . In the English language, the variety of poetical passages which he was not only accustomed to refer to http://oll.libertyfund.org/Texts/LFBooks/Smith0232/GlasgowEdition/PhilosophicalSubjects...
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occasionally, but which he was able to repeat with correctness, appeared surprising even to those, whose attention had never been directed to more important acquisitions.
After a residence at Oxford of seven years, he returned to Kirkaldy, and lived two years with his 11
mother; engaged 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 ecclesiastical profession suitable to his taste, he chose to consult, in this instance, his own inclination, in preference to the wishes of his friends; and abandoning at once all the schemes which their prudence had formed for him, he resolved to return to his own country, and to limit his ambition to the uncertain prospect of obtaining, in time, some one of those moderate preferments, to which literary attainments lead in Scotland.
In the year 1748, he fixed his residence at Edinburgh, and during that and the following years, 12
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, 1
with Mr Alexander Wedderburn, now Lord Loughborough, and with Mr William Johnstone, now Mr Pulteney.
At what particular period his acquaintance with Mr David Hume commenced, does not appear 13
from any information that I have received; but from some papers, now in the possession of Mr Hume’s nephew, and which he has been so obliging as to allow me to peruse, their acquaintance seems to have grown into friendship before the year 1752. It was a friendship on both sides founded on the admiration of genius, and the love of simplicity; and, which forms an interesting circumstance in the history of each of these eminent men, from the ambition which both have shewn to record it to posterity.
In 1751, he was elected Professor of Logic in the University of Glasgow; and, the year following, 14
he was removed to the Professorship of Moral Philosophy in the same University, upon the death of Mr Thomas Craigie, the immediate successor of Dr Hutcheson. In this situation he remained thirteen years; a period he used frequently to look back to, as the most useful and happy of his 2
life. It was indeed a situation in which he was eminently fitted to excel, and in which the daily labours of his profession were constantly recalling his attention to his favourite pursuits, and familiarizing his mind to those important speculations he was afterwards to communicate to the world. In this view, though it afforded, in the meantime, but a very narrow scene for his ambition, it was probably instrumental, in no inconsiderable degree, to the future eminence of his literary character.
Of Mr Smith’s lectures while a Professor at Glasgow, no part has been preserved, excepting what 15
he himself published in the Theory of Moral Sentiments, and in the Wealth of Nations. The Society therefore, I am persuaded, will listen with pleasure to the following short account of them, for which I am indebted to a gentleman who was formerly one of Mr Smith’s pupils, and who
*
continued till his death to be one of his most intimate and valued friends .
‘In the Professorship of Logic, to which Mr Smith was appointed on his first introduction into this 16
University, he soon saw the necessity of departing widely from the plan that had been followed by his predecessors, and of directing the attention of his pupils to studies of a more interesting and useful nature than the logic and metaphysics of the schools. Accordingly, after exhibiting a http://oll.libertyfund.org/Texts/LFBooks/Smith0232/GlasgowEdition/PhilosophicalSubjects...
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general view of the powers of the mind, and explaining so much of the ancient logic as was requisite to gratify curiosity with respect to an artificial method of reasoning, which had once occupied the universal attention of the learned, he dedicated all the rest of his time to the delivery of a system of rhetoric and belles lettres. The best method of explaining and illustrating 3
the various powers of the human mind, the most useful part of metaphysics, arises from an examination of the several ways of communicating our thoughts by speech, and from an attention to the principles of those literary compositions which contribute to persuasion or entertainment.
By these arts, every thing that we perceive or feel, every operation of our minds, is expressed and delineated in such a manner, that it may be clearly distinguished and remembered. There is, at the same time, no branch of literature more suited to youth at their first entrance upon philosophy than this, which lays hold of their taste and their feelings.
‘It is much to be regretted, that the manuscript containing Mr Smith’s lectures on this subject was 17
destroyed before his death. The first part, in point of composition, was highly finished; and the whole discovered strong marks of taste and original genius. From the permission given to students of taking notes, many observations and opinions contained in these lectures have either been detailed in separate dissertations, or engrossed in general collections, which have since been given to the public. But these, as might be expected, have lost the air of originality and the distinctive character which they received from their first author, and are often obscured by that multiplicity of common–place matter in which they are sunk and involved.
‘About a year after his appointment to the Professorship of Logic, Mr Smith was elected to the 18
chair of Moral Philosophy. His course of lectures on this subject was divided into four parts. The first contained Natural Theology; in which he considered the proofs of the being and attributes of God, and those principles of the human mind upon which religion is founded. The second comprehended Ethics, strictly so called, and consisted chiefly of the doctrines which he afterwards published in his Theory of Moral Sentiments. In the third part, he treated at more length of that branch of morality which relates to justice, and which, being susceptible of precise and accurate rules, is for that reason capable of a full and particular explanation.
‘Upon this subject he followed the plan that seems to be suggested by Montesquieu; 19
endeavouring to trace the gradual progress of jurisprudence, both public and private, from the rudest to the most refined ages, and to point out the effects of those arts which contribute to subsistence, and to the accumulation of property, in producing correspondent improvements or 4
alterations in law and government. This important branch of his labours he also intended to give to the public; but this intention, which is mentioned in the conclusion of the Theory of Moral 5
Sentiments, he did not live to fulfil.
‘In the last part of his lectures, he examined those political regulations which are founded, not 20
upon the principle of justice, but that of expediency, and which are calculated to increase the riches, the power, and the prosperity of a State. Under this view, he considered the political institutions relating to commerce, to finances, to ecclesiastical and military establishments. What he delivered on these subjects contained the substance of the work he afterwards published under the title of An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.
‘There was no situation in which the abilities of Mr Smith appeared to greater advantage than as a 21
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manner, though not graceful, was plain and unaffected; and, as he seemed to be always interested in the subject, he never failed to interest his hearers. Each discourse consisted commonly of several distinct propositions, which he successively endeavoured to prove and 6
illustrate. These propositions, when announced in general terms, had, from their extent, not 7
unfrequently something of the air of a paradox. In his attempts to explain them, he often appeared, at first, not to be sufficiently possessed of the subject, and spoke with some hesitation.
As he advanced, however, the matter seemed to crowd upon him, his manner became warm and animated, and his expression easy and fluent. In points susceptible of controversy, you could easily discern, that he secretly conceived an opposition to his opinions, and that he was led upon this account to support them with greater energy and vehemence. By the fulness and variety of his illustrations, the subject gradually swelled in his hands, and acquired a dimension which, without a tedious repetition of the same views, was calculated to seize the attention of his audience, and to afford them pleasure, as well as instruction, in following the same object, through all the diversity of shades and aspects in which it was presented, and afterwards in tracing it backwards to that original proposition or general truth from which this beautiful train of speculation had proceeded.
‘His reputation as a Professor was accordingly raised very high, and a multitude of students from 22
a great distance resorted to the University, merely upon his account. Those branches of science which he taught became fashionable at this place, and his opinions were the chief topics of discussion in clubs and literary societies. Even the small peculiarities in his pronunciation or manner of speaking, became frequently the objects of imitation.’
While Mr Smith was thus distinguishing himself by his zeal and ability as a public teacher, he was 23
gradually laying the foundation of a more extensive 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 have I heard that he 24