The Glasgow Edition of the Works of Adam Smith by Adam Smith - HTML preview

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by his other writings, these would be read with satisfaction and pleasure.’ The three first Essays, more particularly the fragment on the History of Astronomy, are perhaps as strongly marked as any of his most finished compositions, with the peculiar characteristics of his rich, original, and comprehensive mind.

In order to obviate a cavil which may possibly occur to some of those readers who were not personally acquainted with Mr Smith, I shall take this opportunity of mentioning, that in suppressing, through the course of the foregoing narrative, his honorary title of LL. D. (which was conferred on him by the University of Glasgow a very short time before he resigned his Professorship), I have complied not only with his own taste, but with the uniform practice of that circle in which I had the happiness of enjoying his society. To have given him, so soon after his death, a designation, which he never assumed but on the title–pages of his books; and by which he is never mentioned in the letters of Mr Hume and of his other most intimate friends, would have subjected me justly to the charge of affection from the audience before whom my paper was read; but the truth is (so little was my ear then accustomed to the name of Doctor Smith), that I was altogether unconscious of the omission, till it was pointed out to me, several years afterwards, as a circumstance which, however trifling, had been magnified by more than one critic, into a subject of grave animadversion.

ENDNOTES

[* ] Mr Smith, the father, was a native of Aberdeenshire, and, in the earlier part of his life, practised at Edinburgh as a writer to the signet. He was afterwards private secretary to the Earl of Loudoun (during the time he held the offices of principal secretary of state for Scotland, and of keeper of the great seal), and continued in this situation till 1713 or 1714, when he was appointed comptroller of the customs at Kirkaldy. He was also clerk to the courts–martial and councils of war for Scotland; an office which he held from 1707 till his death. As it is now seventy years since he died, the accounts I have received of him are very imperfect; but, from the particulars already mentioned, it may be presumed, that he was a man of more than common abilities.

[* ] See Note (A.)

[† ] George Drysdale, Esq. of Kirkaldy, brother of the late Dr Drysdale.

[‡ ] As the word exhibitioner has misled a French author, to whose critical acquaintance with the English language I am indebted for a very elegant translation of this memoir, I think it proper to mention, that it is used here to denote a student who enjoys a salary to assist him in carrying on his academical education. ‘The word Exhibition’ (says Johnson) ‘is much used for pensions allowed to scholars at the university.’—In the translation above referred to, as well as in the Notice prefixed to M. Garnier’s translation of the Wealth of Nations, the clause in the text is thus rendered: il entra au college de Baliol à Oxford, en qualité de démonstrateur de la fondation de Snell.

With respect to Snell’s foundation (‘the largest, perhaps, and most liberal in Britain’), see the Statistical Account of the University of Glasgow aby Dr. Thomas Reida.

[* ] Redargutio Philosophiarum. (‘Although he had not taken up politics, he was by nature and http://oll.libertyfund.org/Texts/LFBooks/Smith0232/GlasgowEdition/PhilosophicalSubjects...

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entire disposition inclined towards civil affairs, and his talents tended chiefly in that direction; nor was he particularly concerned about Natural Philosophy, except to the degree it should suffice for maintaining the good name and fame of Philosopher, and adding to moral and civil disciplines and shedding on them a kind of majesty.’)

[† ] See Note (B.)

[* ] The uncommon degree in which Mr Smith retained possession, even to the close of his life, of different branches of knowledge which he had long ceased to cultivate, has been often remarked to me by my learned colleague and friend, Mr Dalzel, Professor of Greek in this University.—Mr Dalzel mentioned particularly the readiness and correctness of Mr Smith’s memory on philological subjects, and the acuteness and skill he displayed in various conversations with him on some of the minutiae of Greek grammar.

[1 ] [See above, 172, 229, 242 n. ]

[2 ] [See below, V.10, where Stewart cites Smith’s letter to the Principal of the University accepting the office of Rector.]

[* ] Mr. Millar, the late celebrated Professor of Law in the University of Glasgow. [See the editor’s Introduction, 265, above.]

[3 ] [And see below, Note D.]

[4 ] [Dugald Stewart comments further on this subject below, II.50. Millar himself observed in his Historical View of the English Government (1787; ed. in 4 vols., 1803):

‘I am happy to acknowledge the obligations I feel myself under to this illustrious philosopher, by having, at an early period of life, had the benefit of hearing his lectures on the History of Civil Society, and of enjoying his unreserved conversation on the same subject. The great Montesquieu pointed out the road. He was the Lord Bacon in this branch of philosophy. Dr. Smith is the Newton’. H.V.ii.429–30n.]

[5 ] [The promise was recalled in the advertisement to the 6th edition of TMS (1790) where Smith also observed that he was now unlikely to fulfil it. The subject is treated in LJ and also to a considerable extent in WN III and V.]

[6 ] [Smith throws some light on this statement in LRBL ii.125–6 (ed. Lothian, 136–7), when discussing didactic eloquence, where ‘the design of the writer is to lay down a proposition and prove this by the different arguments that lead to that conclusion . . . But it will often happen that, in order to prove the capitall proposition, it will be necessary to prove severall subordinate ones . . . We are to observe however, that these subordinate propositions should not be above 5

at most. When they exceed this number, the mind cannot easily comprehend them at one view, and the whole runs into confusion. Three, or thereabout, is a very proper number . . .’]

[7 ] [In Astronomy, IV.34, Smith refers to ‘that love of paradox, so natural to the learned’.]

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[8 ] [See above, 232 ff. The quotation is not quite exact.]

[9 ] [First published in Philological Miscellany (1761) and included in ed. 3 of TMS (1767).

Stewart himself states that he believed the work was first appended to ed. 2 (1761); below, II.44.]

[1 ] [TMS VII.1.1.]

[a–a ] has 5

[2 ] [TMS VII.iii.2.]

[3 ] [TMS VII.iii.3.]

[4 ] [TMS IV.1–2.]

[b–b ] consists of two parts. In the former, he explains in what manner we learn to judge of the conduct of our neighbour; in the latter, in what manner, by applying these judgments to ourselves, we acquire a sense of duty. 1–2

[5 ] (TMS I.i.1.3.)

[6 ] (TMS I.i.1.4.)

[7 ] [The words ‘for example’ do not occur in the actual text of TMS, nor is the punctuation of this quotation exact.]

[8 ] [A complete sentence is omitted at this point.]

[9 ] (TMS I.i.3.4.)

[10 ] (TMS I.ii.3.1. The punctuation does not exactly follow the printed text.)

[11 ] [The quotation omits the words ‘; of all the sentiments which can enter the human breast the most dreadful’.]

[12 ] (TMS II.ii.2.3.)

[13 ] [TMS reads: ‘according to the foregoing system’.]

[14 ] [TMS reads: ‘four sources, which are in some respects different from one another’.]

[15 ] [TMS reads ‘last of all’.]

[16 ] [TMS reads ‘or of the society’.]

[17 ] [TMS VII.iii.3.16. The punctuation does not exactly follow the printed texts.]

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[18 ] (Ibid.)

[ * ] cSee Note (C.)c

[19 ] [The quotation runs together passages from the second and concluding sentences of TMS

VII.ii.4.14, and does not follow the punctuation or spelling of the printed text exactly.]

[20 ] (In fact ed. 3. See above, I.26 and note.)

[ * ] dSee the letter quoted in Note (D.)d

[e–e ] texture 1

[* ] See his Natural History of Religion. [Stewart also commented on the distinctive nature of

‘natural history’ in his ‘Account of the Life and Writings of William Robertson, D.D.’ where he remarked on: ‘the ability and address with which he has treated some topics that did not fall within the ordinary sphere of his studies, more especially those which border on the province of the natural historian’. Works, x (1858), 156.]

[21 ] [First published in 1758, i.e. after the composition of the Astronomy; see above, 7.]

[22 ] [See above, I.19 and note 4.]

[23 ] [While Montesquieu does not neglect time in L’ Esprit, it is more a feature of his Considérations sur les causes de la grandeur des Romains et de leur décadence (1734).]

[24 ] [Stewart returned to this theme in his ‘Account of the Life and Writings of William Robertson, D.D.’ read before the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 21 March 1796:

‘It will not, I hope, be imputed to me as a blameable instance of national vanity, if I conclude this Section with remarking the rapid progress that has been made in our own country during the last fifty years, in tracing the origin and progress of the present establishments in Europe. Montesquieu undoubtedly led the way, but much has been done since the publication of his works, by authors whose names are enrolled among the members of this Society’.

Stewart no doubt had in view Hume, Robertson, Smith, and Adam Ferguson. Works, x (1858), 147.]

[25 ] [First published in 1758.]

[26 ] (John Millar, The Origin of the Distinction of Ranks (1771; ed. 3, 1779): An Historical View of the English Government (1787; ed. in 4 vols., 1803).)

[27 ] [WN III.]

[28 ] (The corrected text is published in Corr., Letter 31.)

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[* ] Published afterwards under the title of ‘An Essay on the History of Civil Society’. (1767)

[29 ] (Persius, Satires, i.5–7: If confused Rome makes light of anything, do not go up and correct the deceitful tongue in that balance of theirs, or look to anyone except yourself.)

[1 ] [See above, I.4 and Note A. Dugald Stewart also pointed out with regard to the division of factor rewards into wages, rent, and profit that: ‘It appears from a manuscript of Mr. Smith’s now in my own possession, that the foregoing analysis or division was first suggested to him by Mr.

Oswald of Dunnikier.’ Works, ix (1856), 6.]

[* ] I mention this fact on the respectable authority of James Ritchie, Esq. of Glasgow.

[2 ] (Corr., Letter 96.)

[* ] The day after his arrival at Paris, Mr Smith sent a formal resignation of his Professorship to the Rector of the University of Glasgow. ‘I never was more anxious (says he in the conclusion of this letter) for the good of the College, than at this moment; and I sincerely wish, that whoever is my successor may not only do credit to the office by his abilities, but be a comfort to the very excellent men with whom he is likely to spend his life, by the probity of his heart, and the goodness of his temper.’ (Corr., Letter 81.)

The following extract from the records of the University, which follows immediately after Mr Smith’s letter of resignation, is at once a testimony to his assiduity as a Professor, and a proof of the just sense which that learned body entertained of the talents and worth of the colleague they had lost:

‘The meeting accept of Dr Smith’s resignation, in terms of the above letter, and the office of Professor of Moral Philosophy in this University is therefore hereby declared to be vacant. The University, at the same time, cannot help expressing their sincere regret at the removal of Dr Smith, whose distinguished probity and amiable qualities procured him the esteem and affection of his colleagues; and whose uncommon genius, great abilities, and extensive learning, did so much honour to this society; his elegant and ingenious Theory of Moral Sentiments having recommended him to the esteem of men of taste and literature throughout Europe. His happy talent in illustrating abstracted subjects, and faithful assiduity in communicating useful knowledge, distinguished him as a Professor, and at once afforded the greatest pleasure and the most important instruction to the youth under his care.’ [Scott, ASSP, 221.]

[† ] See note (E.)

[a–a ] Author’s last additions

[b–b ] D’Enville, 5

[c–c ] Author’s last additions

[* ] The following letter, which has been very accidentally preserved, while it serves as a memorial of Mr Smith’s connection with the family of Rochefoucauld, is so expressive of the virtuous and liberal mind of the writer, that I am persuaded it will give pleasure to the Society to record it in their Transactions. (Corr., Letter 194.)

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Paris, 3. Mars 1778.

‘Le desir de se rappeller à votre souvenir, Monsieur, quand on a eu l’honneur de vous connoître, doit vous paroitre fort naturel; permettez que nous saisissions pour cela, ma Mère et moi, l’occasion d’une edition nouvelle des Maximes de la Rochefoucauld, dont nous prenons la liberté de vous offrir un exemplaire. Vous voyez que nous n’avons point de rancune, puisque le mal que vous avez dit de lui dans la Théorie des Sentimens Moraux, ne nous empêche point de vous envoyer ce même ouvrage. Il s’en est même fallu de peu que je ne fisse encore plus, car j’avois eu peut–être la témérité d’entreprendre une traduction de votre Théorie; mais comme je venois de terminer la première partie, j’ai vu paroître la traduction de M. l’Abbé Blavet, et j’ai été forcé de renoncer au plaisir que j’aurois eu de faire passer dans ma langue un des meilleurs ouvrages

†

de la vôtre .

‘Il auroit bien fallu pour lors entreprendre une justification de mon grandpère. Peut–être n’auroit–

il pas été difficile, premièrement de l’excuser, en disant, qu’il avoit toujours vu les hommes à la Cour, et dans la guerre civile, deux théatres sur lesquels ils sont certainement plus mauvais qu’ailleurs; et ensuite de justifier par la conduite personelle de l’auteur, les principes qui sont certainement trop généralisés dans son ouvrage. Il a pris la partie pour le tout; et parceque les gens qu’il avoit eu le plus sous les yeux étoient animés par l’amour propre, il en a fait le mobile général de tous les hommes. Au reste, quoique son ouvrage merite à certains égards d’être combattu, il est cependant estimable même pour le fond, et beaucoup pour la forme.

‘Permettez–moi de vous demander, si nous aurons bientôt une édition complette des œuvres de votre illustre ami M. Hume? Nous l’avons sincèrement regretté.

‘Recevez, je vous supplie, l’expression sincère de tous les sentimens d’estime et d’attachement avec lesquels j’ai l’honneur d’être, Monsieur, votre très humble et très obeissant serviteur.

Le Duc de la 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 be then at Paris, that in the future editions of his Theory the name of Rochefoucauld should be no longer classed with that of Mandeville. In the enlarged edition, accordingly, of that work, published a short time before his death, he has suppressed his censure of the author of the Maximes; who seems indeed (however exceptionable many of his principles may be) to have been actuated, both in his life and writings, by motives very different from those of Mandeville. The real scope of these maxims is placed, I think, in a just light by the ingenious author of the notice prefixed to the edition of them published at Paris in 1778. (The friend above mentioned was Dugald Stewart himself.)

[3 ] [The relations between Turgot and Smith are explored in P. D. Groenewegen, ‘Turgot and Adam Smith’, Scottish Journal of Political Economy, xvi (1969). See also Corr., Letters 93 and 248.]

[4 ] (WN IV.ix.38.) [See also Corr., Letters 94 and 97. In the latter place Smith described Quesnay as ‘one of the worthiest men in France and one of the best Physicians that is to be met with in any country. He was not only the Physician but the friend and confident of Madame Pompadour a woman who was no contemptible Judge of merit.’ Smith comments at length on physiocratic teaching in WN IV.ix.]

[5 ] (WN IV.ix.38. The quotation occurs at the beginning of the paragraph.)

[6 ] [See, for example, Imitative Arts, I.16.]

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[* ] See the Preface to Voltaire’s Oedipe, edit. of 1729.

[7 ] [Rae, Life, 35, records that Boswell had acquainted Johnson with Smith’s preference for rhyme over blank verse ‘always, no doubt, on the same principle that the greater the difficulty the greater the beauty. This delighted the heart of Johnson, and he said: “Sir, I was once in company with Smith, and we did not take to each other, but had I known that he loved rhyme as much as you tell me he does, I should have hugged him.”’]

[d ] the first part of which is, in my judgment, more finished in point of style than any of his compositions; added in 1

[8 ] ( My Own Life. )

[9 ] (Corr., Letter 129.)

[10 ] (Corr., Letter 121.)

[11 ] (Corr., Letter 150.)

[12 ] [The quotation omits: ‘; which, till you tell me the contrary, I shall still flatter myself with soon’.]

[* ] The length to which this Memoir has already extended, together with some other reasons which it is unnecessary to mention here, have induced me, in printing the following section, to confine myself to a much more general view of the subject than I once intended. See Note (G.)

[1 ] [See above, II. 45–52.]

[2 ] [Stewart’s view seems to be quite different from that of Smith himself. See Astronomy, I–

II.]

[3 ] [See I.20 above, where the term is used by Millar in describing Smith’s lectures on economics.]

[* ] See the conclusion of his Theory of Moral Sentiments. (VII.iv.37.)

[a–a ] Author’s last additions

[4 ] [While not neglecting Smith’s analytical achievement, e.g. §27 below, Stewart’s preoccupation with policy may explain his defence of Smith’s originality in terms of the doctrine of natural liberty at §23 and §25.]

[5 ] ( Exemplum Tractatus de Fontibus Juris, Aphor. 5: ‘The ultimate object which legislators ought to have in view, and to which all their enactments and sanctions ought to be subservient, is, that the citizens may live happily. For this purpose, it is necessary that they should receive a religious and pious education; that they should be trained to good morals; that they should be secured from foreign enemies by proper military arrangements; that they should be guarded by http://oll.libertyfund.org/Texts/LFBooks/Smith0232/GlasgowEdition/PhilosophicalSubjects...

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an effectual policy against seditions and private injuries; that they should be loyal to government, and obedient to magistrates; and finally, that they should abound in wealth, and in other national resources.’ De Augmentis Scientiarum, lib. viii. cap. iii: ‘The science of such matters certainly belongs more particularly to the province of men who, by habits of public business, have been led to take a comprehensive survey of the social order; of the interests of the community at large; of the rules of natural equity; of the manners of nations; of the different forms of government; and who are thus prepared to reason concerning the wisdom of laws, both from considerations of justice and of policy. The great desideratum, accordingly, is, by investigating the principles of natural justice, and those of political expediency, to exhibit a theoretical model of legislation, which, while it serves as a standard for estimating the comparative excellence of municipal codes, may suggest hints for their correction and improvement, to such as have at heart the welfare of mankind.’ Stewart’s translation, from Works, i. 71–2.)

[6 ] ( De Fontibus Juris, Aphor. 6: ‘Laws of Laws from which we can determine what is right or wrong in the appointments of each individual law.’ Stewart, Works, xi.2.)

[* ] Science de la Legislation, par le Chev. Filangieri, Liv. i. chap. 13.

[7 ] [See, for example, WN III and especially III. iv together with the notes to the Glasgow edition. For comment, see A. Skinner. ‘Adam Smith: An Economic Interpretation of History’, and D. Forbes, ‘Sceptical Whiggism, Commerce, and Liberty’, in Essays on Adam Smith. The point made in the text was repeated by John Millar, Historical View, iv.124.]

[b–b ] artisan 5

[8 ] [See WN V.i.f.51 and this section generally, i.e. ‘Of the Expence of the Institutions for the Education of Youth’.]

[9 ] [ Essays Moral, Political and Literary, ed. Green and Grose (1882), i.291. The quotation reads: ‘contrary to the more natural and usual course of things’.]

[10 ] [This statement, together with the broadly liberal sentiments of the preceding paragraphs, may bear upon Stewart’s own experience. See for example, Works x. xlvi–liv.]

[11 ] [See, for example, WN V.i.f.50.]

[c ] A distinct analysis of his work might indeed be useful to many readers; but it would itself form a volume of considerable magnitude. I may perhaps, at some future period, present to the Society, an attempt towards such an analysis, which I began long ago, for my own satisfaction, and which I lately made considerable progress in preparing for the press, before I was aware of the impossibility of connecting it, with the general plan of this paper. In the mean time 1–2 (See the article Smith, Adam, in the Index to Stewart, Works, xi, for references to analysis of parts of WN.)

[12 ] [WN IV.ix.51.]

[13 ] [WN IV.ix.50.]

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[14 ] [Smith makes this point in WN II.v.37, drawing attention to the two following books.]

[15 ] [The title of WN IV.i. In the introduction to this book, the commercial system is described as ‘the modern system, and is best understood in our own country and in our own times’.]

[16 ] [WN IV.i.35.]

[17 ] [See, for example, the conclusion of WN IV.iii.a.1.]

[18 ] [WN IV.iii.c.8. The quotation occurs at the end of the paragraph and reads ‘are thus erected’.]

[19 ] [The original reads ‘By such maxims as these, however, . . .’.]

[20 ] [The original text reads ‘for which, I am afraid, the nature . . .’.]

[21 ] (WN IV.iii.c.9.)

[22 ] [The original reads ‘Such are the unfortunate effects of all the regulations of the mercantile system! They not only . . .’.]

[23 ] [The original continues ‘the colony trade ought gradually to be opened; what are the restraints which ought first, and what are those which ought last to be taken away; or in what manner’.]

[24 ] (WN IV.vii.c.44.)

[25 ] [The original reads ‘still more those . . .’.]

[26 ] (TMS VI.ii.2.16.)

[* ] Elements of the Philosophy of the Human Mind, p.261. (Stewart, Works, ii.240.)

[27 ] (‘Idea of a Perfect Commonwealth’, Essays Moral, Political and Literary, ed. Green and Grose, i.481.)

[28 ] [Not perhaps a wholly fair assessment of WN. ix: cf. A. Skinner, ‘Adam Smith: The Development of a System’, Scottish Journal of Political Economy, xxiii (1976).]

[* ] See Note (H.)

[29 ] [It is pointed out above (III.5), however, that contact with the physiocrats ‘could not fail to assist him in methodizing and digesting his speculations’.]

[† ] In proof of this, it is sufficient for me to appeal to a short history of the progress of political economy in France, published in one of the volumes of Ephémérides du Citoyen. See the first part of the volume for the year 1769. The paper is entitled, Notice abrégée des différens Ecrits http://oll.libertyfund.org/Texts/LFBooks/Smith0232/GlasgowEdition/PhilosophicalSubjects...

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modernes, qui ont concouru en France à former la science de l’économie politique.

[30 ] [Possibly a reference to sentiments which Smith was known to have expressed. In LJ(B) 253 (ed. Cannan, 197), for example, Smith refers to the ingenuity of Hume’s reasoning on the subject of money, while noting that: ‘He seems however to have gone a little into the notion that public opulence consists in money.’]

[* ] See Note (I.)

[31 ] [Scott comments on this paper in ASSP, 117 ff.]

[32 ] [Smith writes briefly of plagiarism, but with no especial warmth of feeling, in TMS III.2.15:

‘A weak man . . . pretends to have done what he never did, to have written what another wrote, to have invented what another discovered; and is led into all the miserable vices of plagiarism and common lying.’ See also TMS VII.ii.4.8: ‘the foolish plagiary who gives himself out for the author of what he has no pretensions to’ is ‘properly accused’ of vanity.]

[33 ] [Cf. Scott, ASSP, 118–20.]

[34 ] [A rather similar judgement of TMS is given in Note C, §4.]

[* ] See Note (J.)

[d–d ] and which is certainly executed in a manner more l