ས.

plete conception of it in all its dimenfions and s E c T. proportions. In a word, it was the fault of

his unpremeditated judgments, to be too fyf tematical, and two much in extremes.

But, in whatever way thefe trifling peculiarities in his manners may be explained, there can be no doubt, that they were intimately connected with the genuine artleffness of his mind. In this amiable quality, he often recalled to his friends, the accounts that are given of good La Fontaine; a quality which in him derived a peculiar grace from the fingularity of its combination with those powers of reafon and of eloquence, which, in his political and moral writings, have long engaged the admiration of Europe.

In his external form and appearance, there was nothing uncommon. When perfectly at eafe, and when warmed with converfation, his geftures were animated, and not ungraceful and in the fociety of thofe he loved, his features were often brightened with a fimile of inexpreffible benignity. In the company of strangers, his tendency to absence, and perhaps ftill more his consciousness of this ten dency, rendered his manner fomewhat embarrassed ;—an effect which was probably not a little heightened by those speculative ideas of propriety, which his reclufe habits tended at once to perfect in his conception, and to diminish his power of realizing. He never

fat

V.

SE C T. fat for his picture; but the medallion of Taffie conveys an exact idea of his profile, and of the general expreffion of his countenance.

His valuable library, together with the reft of his property, was bequeathed to his coufin Mr. David Douglas, Advocate. In the education of this young gentleman, he had employed much of his leifure; and it was only two years before his death (at a time when he could ill fpare the pleasure of his society), that he had fent him to ftudy law at Glasgow, under the care of Mr. Millar ;-the strongest proof he could give of his difinterested zeal for the improvement of his friend, as well as of the esteem in which he held the abilities of that eminent Profeffor.

The executors of his will were Dr. Black and Dr. Hutton; with whom he had long lived in habits of the moft intimate and cor. dial friendship; and who, to the many other teftimonies which they had given him of their affection, added the mournful office of wit. neffing his last moments.

NOTES

TO THE

LIFE OF ADAM SMITH, LL.D.

66

NOTE (A), p. 405.

OF this number were Mr. Ofwald of Dunikeir," NOTES.

&c.]-The late James Ofwald, Efq.-for many years one of the most active, able, and publicfpirited of our Scotish representatives in Parliament. He was more particularly distinguished by his knowledge in matters of finance, and by his attention to whatever concerned the commercial or the agricultural interefts of the country. From the manner in which he is mentioned in a paper of Mr. Smith's which I have perused, he appears to have combined, with that detailed information which he is well known to have poffeffed as a statesman and man of business, a taste for the more general and philofophical difcuffions of political economy. He lived in habits of great intimacy with Lord Kames and Mr. Hume; and was one of Mr. Smith's earliest and most confidential friends.

NOTE (B), p. 408.

"The lectures of the profound and eloquent Dr. "Hutchefon," &c.] Those who have derived their

knowledge

NOTES. knowledge of Dr. Hutchefon folely from his publications, may, perhaps, be inclined to dispute the propriety of the epithet eloquent, when applied to any of his compofitions; more particularly, when applied to the Syftem of Moral Philofophy, which was published after his death, as the substance of his lectures in the University of Glasgow. His talents, however, as a public speaker, must have been of a far higher order than what he has displayed as a writer; all his pupils whom I have happened to meet with (fome of them, certainly, very competent judges) having agreed exactly with each other in their accounts of the extraordinary impression which they made on the minds of his hearers. I have mentioned, in the text, Mr. Smith as one of his warmest admirers; and to his name I fhall take this opportunity of adding thofe of the late Earl of Selkirk; the late Lord Prefident Miller; and the late Dr. Archibald Maclaine, the very learned and judicious tranflator of Mosheim's Ecclefiaftical History. My father, too, who had attended Dr. Hutchefon's lectures for feveral years, never fpoke of them without much fenfibility. On this occafion we can only fay, as Quinctilian has done of the eloquence of Hortenfius; " Apparet placuiffe aliquid eo dicente, "quod legentes non invenimus."

Dr. Hutchefon's Inquiry into our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue; his Difcourfe on the Paffions; and his Illuftrations of the Moral Senfe, are much more ftrongly marked with the characteristical features of his genius, than his pofthumous work. His great and deferved fame, however, in this country, refts now chiefly on the traditionary history of his academical lectures, which appear to have contributed very powerfully to diffuse, in Scotland, that tafte for analytical discussion, and that spirit of liberal inquiry, to which

the

the world is indebted for fome of the most valuable NOTES. productions of the eighteenth century.

NOTE (C*), p. 444.

According to the learned English translator of "Arif"totle's Ethics and Politics," the general idea which runs through Mr. Smith's Theory, was obviously borrowed from the following paffage of Polybius: "From the union of the two fexes, to which all are "naturally inclined, children are born. When any of "these, therefore, being arrived at perfect age, instead "of yielding fuitable returns of gratitude and affiftance "to thofe by whom they have been bred, on the con"trary, attempt to injure them by words or actions, "it is manifeft that those who behold the wrong, after "having alfo feen the sufferings and the anxious cares "that were sustained by the parents in the nourish"ment and education of their children, must be

greatly offended and displeased at such proceeding. << For man, who among all the various kinds of ani"mals is alone endowed with the faculty of reafon, "cannot, like the reft, pafs over fuch actions: but will "make reflection on what he fees; and comparing "likewife the future with the prefent, will not fail to "exprefs his indignation at this injurious treatment; "to which, as he forefees, he may also, at fome time, "be expofed. Thus again, when any one who has "been fuccoured by another in the time of danger, "instead of fhewing the like kindness to this bene"factor, endeavours at any time to deftroy or hurt "him; it is certain, that all men must be fhocked by "fuch ingratitude, through sympathy with the refent❝ment of their neighbour; and from an apprehenfion "alfo, that the cafe may be their own. And from

❝ hence