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Is undoubtedly the Bible of political economy.-SAINTSBURY, GEORGE, 1886, Specimens of English Prose Style, p. 216.

The "Wealth of Nations" is, without doubt, the greatest existing book on that department of knowledge, the only attempt to replace and so antiquate it-that of John Stuart Mill-having, notwithstanding its partial usefulness, on the whole decidedly failed. Buckle, however, goes too far when he pronounces it "the most important book ever written," just as he similarly exceeds due measure when he makes its author superior as a philosopher to Hume. Mackintosh more justly said of it that it stands on a level with the treatise "De Jure Belli et Pacis," the "Essay on the Human Understanding," and the "Spirit of Laws," in the respect that these four works are severally the most conspicuous landmarks in the progress of the sciences with which they deal. And, when he added that the "Wealth of Nations" was "perhaps the only book which produced an immediate, general, and irrevocable change in some of the most important parts of the legislation of all civilized states," he scarcely spoke too strongly if we understand him as referring to its influence as an agent of demolition. It certainly operated powerfully through the harmony of its critical side with the tendencies of the half-century which followed its publication to the assertion of personal freedom and "natural rights."—INGRAM, J. K., 1887, Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. XXII.

Not only have we here a full disquisition on the comparative claims of Free-trade and Reciprocity; State regulation and unlimited competition; the importance of liberating industry, and the marvellous results of a division of labour; the sources of wealth in nature and the secret springs of human action, stimulating its production and determining distribution; but we have here, also, sage remarks on the decay of foreign trade and the causes of commercial depression, on the advantages of colonial enterprize, and an extension of Imperial possessions from an economic point of view; we have allusions to the co-existence of progress and poverty when the "age of industry" had scarcely commenced, and remarks on depopulation of the country districts and over-crowding of the towns; on landlordism and peasant

proprietorship; on education and Church Establishment; on the just principles of taxation and local government-all subjects which at this present moment are occupying the public mind, and on which Adam Smith's views throw interesting and instructive side lights, whilst on such topics as the functions of capital, and the relationship of rent, profit, and wages, his authority, though questioned by some, cannot be ignored by any in the settlement of the long-standing controversy between capital and labour.-KAUFMANN, M., 1887, Adam Smith and his Foreign Critics, The Scottish Review, vol. 10, p. 388..

Adam Smith's book, as will be readily seen, was based upon the manufactureindustry which had as yet not been supplanted by the great machine-industry of modern times. It is important to bear this in mind in considering many of the views advanced in the work. Those who followed in his footsteps had necessarily to take into account the great industrial revolution which supervened but a few years after his death. The more immediate result of his teaching and the one which has maintained itself until the present day was the complete overthrow, in this country at least, of the doctrine of protection, and the establishment of freetrade as the basis of orthodox middle-class economics on their practical side.-BAX, ERNEST BELFORT, 1887, ed., The Wealth of Nations, Introduction, vol. I, p. xxxiii.

To

To the practical politician and social reformer, Adam Smith ought to be a hero, no less than he is to the economist. both he appears in the light of one of the greatest vanquishers of error on record, the literary Napoleon of his generation. No man in modern times has said more with so much effect within the compass of one book. Yet it is not probable that any competent person could now be found to repeat without hesitation the assertion, made more than once by Buckle in his "History of Civilization," that "The Wealth of Nations" is the most important book ever written. As we become removed by an ever-increasing distance from the prejudices and opinions which Adam Smith once for all shattered, their magnitude and importance appear to grow smaller.-HALDANE, R. B., 1887, Life of Adam Smith (Great Writers), p. 12.

Adam Smith left the love of wealth in human minds, not rebuked but enlightened. Little more than a century has elapsed, yet mankind have made greater progress toward humane and mutually advantageous international relations in that time than during all the other centuries of human history.-WALKER, FRANCIS A., 1888, Political Economy, p. 2.

The chief merit of the "Wealth of Nations," and that which enables it still to hold its place at the head of the politico-economic literature of the world, is not any very great originality in detail, but an extraordinary grasp of all parts of the subject, and a marvellous ability in illustrating theoretical propositions by apt instances from practical life. Adam Smith is usually spoken of as the first prophet of Free Trade.-GOSSE, EDMUND, 1888, A History of Eighteenth Century Literature, p. 306.

One of the most remarkable books which bear a Scotchman's name and that is saying much for it, and for him. HUTTON, LAURENCE, 1891, Literary Landmarks of Edinburgh, p. 26.

"Adam Smith on Wealth of Nations,"
Love is lost in calculations.

Bees whose bags are full of money
Do not gather love for honey;

Business, enter if you dare!
What is gold to golden hair!

-SLADEN, DOUGLAS, c1893, Confessio

Amantis, Amator: Amata: Mater.

In reality I owe far more to Adam Smith than to Mill. The great defect of The great defect of Mill's work is the want of historical knowledge, whilst a large part of the "Wealth of Nations" is history of the highest order. I have availed myself of the authority of the older master to include a much greater amount of history than is usual in a statement of principles. -NICHOLSON, J. SHIELD, 1893, Principles of Political Economy, Preface, p. vi.

It is not too much to say that Franklin's influence on economic education is illustrative of his whole educational doctrine. He gave to Adam Smith apt illustrations of the utility of the ideas of the "Wealth of Nations." So great had been the changes in America due to its development that the illustrations in the "Wealth of Nations" which bear particularly upon the American colonies are now hardly estimated at their original value; it should

be remembered that this book, which Buckle calls "the most important book ever written," and "the most valuable contribution ever made by a single man toward establishing the principles on which governments should be based," was the first work by an European scholar which made use of the American colonies as apt illustrations of its doctrines and pointed to those colonies as the country where the new political economy should develop in all its strength. Had Franklin done nothing else in the world but contribute these illustrations to Adam Smith's book, he would have had a high place among the great educators of mankind. As the first book on the economy basis of modern government in America, the "Wealth of Nations" should be classed with the "Federalist," De Tocqueville's "Democracy in America," and Bryce's "American Commonwealth."-THORPE, FRANCIS NEWTON, 1893, Benjamin Franklin and the University of Pennsylvania, p. 100.

The nature of his subject demanded clearness more than elegance; and the "Wealth of Nations" is always clear, often homely, even at times ungrammatical. . He will not keep up his dignity at the cost of the smallest obscurity; and, like Socrates, he takes his illustrations rather from the courtyard than the court. His examples are almost always from actual life and history; he is fanciful only in his similes. He is a hard hitter, and a good hater, though his heaviest strokes are levelled at bad laws and false doctrines, and his hatred is usually kept for classes, not individuals.-BONAR, JAMES, 1895, English Prose, ed. Craik, vol. IV, p. 318.

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The value of the book can hardly be exaggerated. It consists largely in its practicality. He was writing, not for students only, but for statesmen and financiers and business men. . . . His book is full of acute practical suggestions. No wonder Pulteney said, in 1797, it is converting this generation and will conquer the next. What also aided it was the arrangement and plan of the book, so informal and unpedantic; its combination of deductive and inductive method, so well fitted to be the source of an historical as well as of an abstract school of economics; the broad view it takes of human life, so

contrasted with "the economic man" of some later writers. It is remarkable that while his great aim was the demolition of abuses, he should have succeeded also in constructing so much that has proved permanent; and that, practical writer as he was, the one thing of supreme importance in him should be his contribution to the theory of his subject; for it has been noted that it was he who first showed how "value" measures human motive-that is, how much of human activity is measurable, and, therefore, open to science. Much of his influence was due to the exact date at which his book appeared-early enough to administer the coup de grâce to the old system of obstruction and to champion the cause of land and of labour, but not too soon to ride on the advancing wave of a new industrial epoch.--SMITH, A. L., 1895, Social England, ed. Traill, vol. 5, p. 335.

A good book to read in these times, or in any times. He may indeed say rash things about "that crafty animal called a Politician," and the mean rapacity of capitalists; but he is full of sympathy for the poor, and for those who labor; and is everywhere large in his thought and healthy and generous. I am glad to pay this tribute, though only in a note.MITCHELL, DONALD G., 1895, English Lands Letters and Kings, Queen Anne and the Georges, p. 148, note.

By a course of masterly reasoning, far superior to that of Condillac, he demonstrated that in commerce both sides gain; and, therefore, that nations in multiplying their commercial relations, multiply their profits, and multiply their wealth; and that, as a necessary consequence, the labour of artisans, manufactures and commerce, all enrich a nation, and, therefore, that those who engage in them are productive labourers. Perhaps it may seem that the doctrine is so plain that it needs no proof; but that is far from being the case. At the time Smith proved it, it was a perfect paradox, contrary to the universal opinion of centuries. Even if Adam Smith had never done anything else for Economics than this, he would have been entitled to immortal glory. Smith's doctrine is now the very corner-stone of Economics, and made a complete change in public opinion, and in international policy, which has forever removed a

perennial source of war from the world. -MACLEOD, HENRY DUNNING, 1896, The History of Economics, p. 75.

It was not by mere chance that the Declaration of Independence and the "Wealth of Nations" were published at so nearly the same time. Each involved the recognition of the same principle in different fields of human activity. In modern politics we have seen that society is better governed by allowing individuals, as far as possible to govern themselves. In modern economics we have seen that society is made richer by allowing individuals, as far as possible, freedom to get rich in their own ways. Each of these principles has its limits; but each marks. an immeasurable advance in politics and in economics, over the system of police government which had preceded it.-HADLEY, ARTHUR TWINING, 1896, Economics, p. 13.

To speak of Adam Smith as the author of "The Wealth of Nations" brings before us at once his chief claim to a place among the immortals in literature. The significance of this work is so overwhelming that it casts into a dark shadow all that he wrote in addition to this masterpiece. His other writings are chiefly valued in so far as they may throw additional light upon the doctrines of this one book. Few books in the world's history have exerted a greater influence on the course of human affairs; and on account of this one work, Adam Smith's name is familiar to all well-educated persons in every civilized land. . . . All the economists before the time of Adam Smith must be regarded as his predecessors; all the economists who have lived since Adam Smith have carried on his work and his position in economics is therefore somewhat like that of Darwin in natural science. There are many schools among modern economists, but their work all stands in some relation to that large work of this "old master.' -ELY, RICHARD T., 1897, Library of the World's Best Literature, ed. Warner, vol. XXIII, pp. 13519, 13523.

Too often the blood of the martyred thinker has been the seed of civilisation. To this general experience Adam Smith was a notable exception. As the founder of Political Economy, the systematiser and expounder of those economic ideas which lie at the root of civilisation, Adam

Smith escaped alike the violent opposition and the contemptuous indifference of his contemporaries; he had the good fortune to reap in his lifetime the reward of his greatness. Upon his brow ere he died was placed the wreath of immortality. When Adam Smith began to meditate upon economic problems the world was wedded to the great delusion of Protection. What could a solitary thinker do singlehanded to overthrow a system which for

centuries held the foremost intellects of the world in thraldom? Only an intellectual Don Quixote could hope by philosophic tilting to destroy a world-wide delusion. And yet the modest, retiring philosopher of Kirkcaldy, from his obscure study, sent forth ideas which, by moulding afresh the minds of statesmen, have changed the economic history of the world. In view of the grandeur of his work and the far-reaching nature of his influence, it is surely meet that in Scotland's temple of fame a niche should be found for her illustrious son, Adam Smith. . The remark

able features of Adam Smith's work was, that long before political emancipation was conceded, the Governments of the day, under the influence of the "Wealth of Nations," made concessions which paved the way for Free Trade. Pitt, whose economic ideas were somewhat advanced, made a sympathetic reference to the "Wealth of Nations" in the House of Commons in 1792, and his successors did much to purify the tariff on Smithian principles. By Cobden and Gladstone the ideas of the "Wealth of Nations" were still further translated into practical life in the direction of complete Free Trade. Under the guidance of the idea of Freedom which dominates that book, Liberalism set itself to the work of emancipation in all departments of the national life. A reformed commercial policy in the direction of Free Trade, a reformed foreign policy in the direction of national independence, a reformed legal code in the direction of equality before the law and freedom from feudal restraints, a reformed ecclesiastical policy in the direction of freedom from religious tests-these, and numerous emancipatory movements, were inspired by the idea of natural liberty, which, on the economic side, came from Adam Smith, and on the political side from the principles of the Revolution of 1688

as formulated by John Locke.-MACPHERSON, HECTOR C., 1899, Adam Smith (Famous Scots Series), pp. 9, 66.

GENERAL

Smith, who called into existence a new science, fraught with the dearest interests of humanity, and unfolded many of its principles in a single lifetime.-ALISON, SIR ARCHIBALD, 1833-42, History of Europe During the French Revolution, vol. XIV, p. 3.

The greatest man his county has ever produced. BUCKLE, HENRY THOMAS, 1862-66, History of Civilization in England, vol. III, p. 338, note.

One consideration to be carried in mind in the interpretation of the "Wealth of Nations," is that its author's system of philosophy ought to be studied as a whole; his economic system was part of a complete system of social, or, as he called it, moral philosophy. Mr. Buckle, who on other points has much misconceived the "Wealth of Nations," properly says of it, and the "Theory of Moral Sentiments," that the two must be taken together and considered as one, both forming parts of the scheme embraced in his course of moral philosophy at Glasgow-a course which, it is important to observe, began with Natural Theology, and included, along with Ethics and Political Economy, the Philosophy of Law. Again, as his social philosophy should be considered as a whole, so the whole should be considered in connection with the philosophical systems, or methods, of investigation of his time.-LESLIE, T. E. CLIFFE, 1870, The Political Economy of Adam Smith, Fortnightly Review, vol. 14, p. 550.

He created the Science of Political Economy, and started the theory and practice of Free Trade.-BROOKE, STOPFORD, 1876, English Literature (Primer), p. 136.

Adam Smith, the first (alas! perhaps the last) real economist, did not devote his life to polishing up a theory of rent. Astronomy, society, education, government, morals, psychology, language, art, were in turns the subject of his study, and in all he was master; they all moved him alike, as part of man's work on earth. He never would have founded Political Economy if he had been merely an economist.-HARRISON, FREDERIC, 1883, The

SMITH-WARTON

Choice of Books and Other Literary Pieces, p. 373.

The breadth and comprehensiveness of treatment characteristic of the utterances of such a teacher are inseparable attributes of his manner of thought. He has the artist's eye. For him things stand in picturesque relations; their great outlines fit into each other; the touch of his treatment is necessarily broad and strong. The same informing influence of artistic conception and combination gives to his style its luminous and yet transparent qualities. His sentences cannot retain the stiff joints of logic; it would be death to them to wear the chains of formal statement; they must take leave to deck themselves with eloquence.-WILSON, WOODROW, 1888, An Old Master, The New Princeton Review, vol. 6, p. 220.

It is needless, for these general and other reasons, to speak in detail of Smith's exposition of justice. Enough has been said about it and about the "Lectures" in general to show how far Adam Smith was from being a dogmatist, an exponent of some one uncritical and uncriticised view of human economic or social activity. The man had a complete "social philosophy," if we are obliged to put matters in this way, and these "Lectures" establish the fact that the "Wealth of Nations" was written as illustrative of merely one phase of human activity-not the ultimate and only phase. And the originality of Adam Smith's genius is more apparent after their perusal and after consideration

71

of the facts and considerations they make
apparent. What he learned in France
was not enough to make him wholly recast
what he had evolved as the natural result
of the workings of his own independent,
and great, original mind along the lines
laid down for him largely by his British
predecessors.-CALDWELL, WILLIAM, 1897,
Smith's Lectures on Justice, etc., Journal
of Political Economy, vol. 5, p. 257.

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There can in any case be no doubt that Smith was a sincere theist, and that he especially lays great stress upon the doctrine of final causes. It is probably as clear that he was not an orthodox believer. His characteristic shrinking from "clamour" explains his reticence as to deviations from accepted opinions. But his warm admiration for Hume, Voltaire, and Rousseau, was scarcely compatible with complete disapproval of their religious doctrines; and not to express such disapproval, had he felt it, would have been cowardly rather than reticent. He no doubt shared the rationalism of most contemporary philosophers, though in the sense of optimistic deism. Smith argues, in the "Wealth of Nations," that society is so constituted that each man promotes the interests of all by attending to his own interests, and in the "Moral Sentiments," that sympathy induces us to approve such conduct as In both cases a betends to this result. lief in the argument from design is clearly implied.-STEPHEN, LESLIE, 1898, Dictionary of National Biography, vol. LIII, p. 8.

Thomas Warton

1728-1790

Born, at Basingstoke, 1728. Matric. Trin. Coll., Oxford, 16 March, 1744; B. A.,
1747; M. A., 1750; Fellow, 1751; Professor of Poetry, 1756–66; B. D., 7 Dec., 1767.
Rector of Kiddington, 1771. F. S. A., 1771. Camden Prof. of Ancient Hist., Oxford,
1785-90. Poet Laureate, 1785-90. Died, at Oxford, 21 May 1790. Buried in Trin.
Coll. Chapel. Works: "The Pleasures of Melancholy" (anon.), 1747; "Poems on
several Occasions," 1747; "The Triumph of Isis," (anon.), 1749; "A Description
of
Winchester" (anon.), 1750; "Newmarket," 1751; "Ode for Music,'
1751; "Observations on the Faerie Queene," 1754; "A Companion to the Guide,
of Ralph Bathurst"
and a Guide to the Companion" (anon.), 1760; "Life

(2 vols.), 1761; "Life of Sir Thomas Pope," 1772; "The History of English Poetry"
(4 vols.), 1774-81; "Poems," 1777; "Enquiry into the authenticity of the poems
attributed to Thomas Rowley," 1782; "Specimen of a History of Oxfordshire" (priv.
ptd.), 1782; "Verses on Sir Joshua Reynolds' Painted Window at New College"
(anon.), 1782. He edited: "The Union," 1753; "Inscriptionum Romanorum Metric-
"1764; C. Cephalas' "Anthologiæ
arum Delectus," 1758; "The Oxford Sausage,

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