A. SMITH.
Adam Smith was born June 5, 1723, at Kirkaldy, in the county of Fife, where his father held the place of comptroller of the customs. Being a posthumous and only child, he became the sole object of his widowed mother’s tenderness and solicitude; and this was increased by the delicacy of his constitution. Upon her devolved the sole charge of his education; and the value of her care may be estimated from the uninterrupted harmony and deep mutual affection which united them, unchilled, to the end of life. He was remarkable for his love of reading and the excellence of his memory, even at the early age when she first placed him at the grammar-school of Kirkaldy, where he won the affection of his companions by his amiable disposition, though the weakness of his frame hindered him from joining in their sports.
At the age of fourteen he was sent to the University of Glasgow, from which, at the end of three years, he was removed to Baliol College, Oxford, in order to qualify himself for taking orders in the English Church. Mathematics and natural philosophy seem to have been his favourite pursuits at Glasgow; but at Oxford he devoted all his leisure hours to belles-lettres, and the moral and political sciences. Among these political economy cannot be reckoned; for at that period it was unknown even in name: still, in such studies, and by the sedulous improvement of his understanding, he was laying the foundations of his immortal work. He remained seven years at Oxford, without conceiving, as may be inferred from some passages in the ‘Wealth of Nations,’ any high respect for the system of education then pursued in the University; and, having given up all thoughts of taking orders, he returned to his mother’s house at Kirkaldy, and devoted himself entirely to literature and science. In 1748 he removedto Edinburgh, where, under Lord Kames’s patronage, he delivered a course of lectures on rhetoric and belles-lettres. These were never published; and, with other papers, were destroyed by Smith a short time before his death. Dr. Blair, in the well-known course which he delivered ten years afterwards on the same subject, acknowledges how greatly he was indebted to his predecessor, and how largely he had borrowed from him.
In 1751 Mr. Smith was elected Professor of Logic in the University of Glasgow, and in the following year he was transferred to the chair of Moral Philosophy, which he filled during thirteen years. The following account of his lectures is given by Professor Millar. “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 more at 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.... In the last part of his lectures he examined those political regulations which are founded, not on the principle of justice, but on 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 Dr. Smith appeared to greater advantage than as a professor. In delivering his lectures, he trusted almost entirely to extemporary elocution. His 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 of several distinct propositions, which he successively endeavoured to prove and to illustrate. These propositions, when announced in general terms, had, from their extent, not 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 becamewarm 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 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.”
Smith published his ‘Theory of Moral Sentiments’ in 1759. The fundamental principle of this work, we use the summary of Mr. Macculloch, is that “sympathyforms the real foundation of morals; that we do not immediately approve or disapprove of any given action, when we have become acquainted with the intention of the agent and the consequences of what he has done, but that we previously enter, by means of that sympathetic affection which is natural to us, into the feelings of the agent, and those to whom the action relates; that having considered all the motives and passions by which the agent was actuated, we pronounce, with respect to theproprietyorimproprietyof the action, according as we sympathise or not with him; while we pronounce, with respect to themeritordemeritof the action, according as we sympathise with the gratitude or resentment of those who were its objects; and that we necessarily judge of our own conduct by comparing it with such maxims and rules as we have deduced from observations previously made on the conduct of others.” This theory, ingenious as it is, is generally abandoned as untenable. Dr. Brown has argued, and the objection seems fatal, that though sympathy may diffuse, it cannot originate moral sentiments: at the same time he bears the strongest testimony to the literary merits and moral tendency of the work.
In 1763 Smith received from the University of Glasgow the honorarydegree of Doctor of Laws, and he was offered, and accepted, the situation of travelling tutor to the young Duke of Buccleugh. His long residence in the populous and manufacturing metropolis of western Scotland had enabled him to collect a rich hoard of materials for the great work he had in view; and this new appointment changed the method, rather than interrupted the course, of his studies. It afforded him the means of examining the habits, institutions, and condition of man under new forms, and in new countries, and he observed with his natural acuteness and sagacity the influence of locality, of climate, and of government. He no doubt derived considerable advantage from the society of the distinguished men with whom he associated at Paris; among these, Turgot, D’Alembert, Helvetius, Marmontel, Morellet, Rochefoucauld, and Quesnay, were his intimate friends. So highly did he appreciate the talents of the last-named person as an economist, that he had intended, had Quesnay lived, to have acknowledged the debt he owed him by dedicating to him his own great work on the ‘Wealth of Nations.’
Having spent two years on the Continent, Dr. Smith returned to England with his pupil, and soon after joined his mother at Kirkaldy, where he resided for about ten years almost entirely in seclusion, occupied in the prosecution of his great work. It was published in 1776; and few books have ever been given to the world tending more directly to destroy the prejudices, develop the powers, and promote the happiness of mankind. But the world at that time was not clear-sighted enough to appreciate its merits. Dr. Smith however had the gratification to see that, during fifteen years which elapsed between its publication and his death, it had produced a considerable effect upon public opinion, and that the eyes of men were beginning to be opened upon an object of such importance to human happiness. In this country at least Dr. Smith was the creator of the science of political economy, for he had only a chaos of materials from which to form it. Some defects may be discovered in his arrangement, and some errors detected in the principles as laid down by him; for it is hardly given to human intellect, that the originator of a science should also carry it to perfection. But Smith established the foundation upon which all future superstructures must rest; and the labours of Ricardo, Malthus, and some now living, eminent as they are, instead of superseding their predecessor do but enhance his merit. With all the progress which liberty of every kind has made since his time, no one has maintained the freedom of industry in all its bearings more forcibly than himself. The theories of rent, and of population,seem to be the only important branches of the science, as it now stands, which had escaped his observation.
In 1778 Dr. Smith was appointed Commissioner of the Customs for Scotland. The duties of his office obliged him to quit London, where he had resided for two years subsequent to the publication of the ‘Wealth of Nations,’ and where his society had been courted by the most distinguished characters; and he took up his abode in Edinburgh, accompanied by his aged mother. In 1787 he was elected Rector of the University of Glasgow; a compliment which gave him great pleasure, as he was much attached to that body, and grateful for the services it had rendered him in his youth, and the honours it had conferred on him at a more advanced age.
His mother died in 1784, and his grief on this occasion is supposed to have injured his health, and his constitution, which had never been robust, began to give way. He suffered another severe privation in the death of his cousin, Miss Douglas, who had managed his household for many years, since the infirmities of his parent had disqualified her for that employment. He survived Miss Douglas only two years, and died in 1790 of a tedious and painful illness, which he bore with patience and resignation.
Adam Smith’s private character is thus summed up by his friend Mr. Dugald Stewart: “The more delicate and characteristical features of his mind it is perhaps impossible to trace. That there were many peculiarities both in his manners and in his intellectual habits was manifest to the most superficial observer; but, although to those who knew him, these peculiarities detracted nothing from the respect which his abilities commanded; and although, to his intimate friends, they added an inexpressible charm to his conversation, while they displayed in the most interesting light the artless simplicity of his heart, yet it would require a very skilful pencil to present them to the public eye. He was certainly not fitted for the general commerce of the world, or for the business of active life. The comprehensive speculations with which he had been occupied from his youth, and the variety of materials which his own inventions continually supplied to his thoughts, rendered him habitually inattentive to familiar objects and to common occurrences; and he frequently exhibited instances of absence which had scarcely been surpassed by the fancy of La Bruyère. Even in company he was apt to be engrossed with his studies, and appeared, at times, by the motion of his lips, as well as by his looks and gestures, to be in the fervour of composition. I have often however been struck, at the distance of years, with his accurate memory of themost trifling particulars; and am inclined to believe, from this and some other circumstances, that he possessed a power, not perhaps uncommon among absent men, of recollecting, in consequence of subsequent efforts of reflection, many occurrences which, at the time when they happened, did not seem to have sensibly attracted his notice.
“To the defect now mentioned, it was probably owing, in part, that he did not fall in easily with the common dialogue of conversation, and that he was somewhat apt to convey his own ideas in the form of a lecture. When he did so however, it never proceeded from a wish to engross the discourse, or gratify his vanity. His own inclination disposed him so strongly to enjoy in silence the gaiety of those around him, that his friends were often led to concert little schemes, in order to engage him in the discussions most likely to interest him. Nor do I think I shall be accused of going too far, when I say that he was scarcely ever known to start a new topic himself, or to appear unprepared upon those topics that were introduced by others. Indeed, his conversation was never more amusing than when he gave a loose to his genius, upon the very few branches of knowledge of which he only possessed the outlines.
“In his external form and appearance there was nothing uncommon. When perfectly at ease, and when warmed with conversation, his gestures were animated, and not ungraceful; and in the society of those he loved, his features were often brightened with a smile of inexpressible benignity.... He never sat for his picture, but the medallion by Tassie conveys an exact idea of his profile, and of the general expression of his countenance.” It is from this that our portrait of him is engraved.
To those of Smith’s works of which we have already spoken, we have to add two articles in a short-lived periodical publication, called the ‘Edinburgh Review,’ for 1755, containing a review of Johnson’s Dictionary, and a letter on the state of literature in the different countries of Europe; an ‘Essay on the Formation of Languages;’ and Essays, published after his death by his desire, with an account of his life and writings prefixed, by Dugald Stewart, on the Principles which lead and direct Philosophical Inquiries; on the nature of the Imitation practised in the Imitative Arts; on the affinity between certain English and Italian verses; and on the External Senses. To that account of his life we may refer for an able analysis of his most important writings, as well as to the memoir prefixed to Mr. Macculloch’s edition of the ‘Wealth of Nations,’ from which this sketch is principally taken.
Engraved by T. Woolnoth.CALVIN.From a Print engraved by C. Dankertz.Under the Superintendance of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.London, Published by Charles Knight, Ludgate Street.
Engraved by T. Woolnoth.CALVIN.From a Print engraved by C. Dankertz.Under the Superintendance of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.London, Published by Charles Knight, Ludgate Street.
Engraved by T. Woolnoth.CALVIN.From a Print engraved by C. Dankertz.Under the Superintendance of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.London, Published by Charles Knight, Ludgate Street.
CALVIN.