SECT. have come to my knowledge. I believe I II. have mentioned to you already Helvetius's book de l'Elprit. It is worth your reading, not for its philofophy, which I do not highly value, but for its agreeable compofition. I had a letter from him a few days ago, wherein he tells me that my name was much oftener in the manufcript, but that the Cenfor of books at Paris obliged him to ftrike it out. Voltaire has lately published a fmall work called Candide, ou l'Optimisme. I fhall give you a detail of it—-- But what is all this to my book? fay you.-My dear Mr. Smith, have patience: Compofe yourself to tranquillity. Shew yourself a philofopher in practice as well as profeffion: Think on the emptinefs, and rafhnefs, and futility of the common judgments of men: How little they are regulated by reafon in any fubject, much more in philofophical fubjects, which fo far exceed the comprehenfion of the vulgar.

- Non fi quid turbida Roma,

Elevet, accedas: examenve improbum in illa

Caftiges trutina: nec te quæfiveris extra.

A wife man's kingdom is his own breast; or, if he ever looks farther, it will only be to the judgment of a felect few, who are free from prejudices, and capable of examining his work. Nothing indeed can be a ftronger prefumption of falsehood than the approbation

II.

of the multitude; and Phocion, you know, s E C T. always fufpected himfelf of fome blunder, when he was attended with the applauses of the populace.

"Suppofing, therefore, that you have duly prepared yourself for the worft by all these reflections, I proceed to tell you the melancholy news, that your book has been very unfortunate; for the public feem difpofed to applaud it extremely. It was looked for by the foolish people with fome impatience; and the mob of literati are beginning already to be very loud in its praifes. Three Bishops called yefterday at Millar's fhop in order to buy copies, and to afk queftions about the author. The Bishop of Peterborough faid he had paffed the evening in a company where he heard it extolled above all books in the world. The Duke of Argyll is more decifive than he uses to be in its favour. I fuppofe he either confiders it as an exotic, or thinks the author will be ferviceable to him in the Glasgow elections. Lord Lyttleton fays, that Robertfon and Smith and Bower are the glories of English literature. Ofwald protefts he does not know whether he has reaped more inftruction or entertainment from it. But you may eafily judge what reliance can be put on his judgment who has been engaged all his life in public business, and who never fees any faults in his friends. Millar exults and

brags

II.

SEC T. brags that two-thirds of the edition are already fold, and that he is now fure of fuccefs. You fee what a fon of the earth that is, to value books only by the profit they bring him. In that view, I believe it may prove a very good book.

"Charles Townfend, who paffes for the clevereft fellow in England, is fo taken with the performance, that he faid to Ofwald hẹ would put the Duke of Buccleuch under the author's care, and would make it worth his while to accept of that charge. As foon as I heard this I called on him twice, with a view of talking with him about the matter, and of convincing him of the propriety of fending that young Nobleman to Glafgow: For I could not hope, that he could offer you any terms which would tempt you to renounce your Profefforfhip. But I miffed him. Mr. Townsend paffes for being a little uncertain in his refolutions; fo perhaps you need not build much on this fally,

"In recompence for fo many mortifying things which nothing but truth, could have extorted from me, and which I could eafily have multiplied to a greater number, I doubt not but you are fo good a Chriftian as to return good for evil; and to flatter my vanity by telling me, that all the godly in Scotland abufe me for my account of John Knox and the Reformation. I fuppofe you are glad to

fee my paper end, and that I am obliged to SECT. conclude with

II.

Your humble fervant,

DAVID HUME."

SECT. III.

From the Publication of The Theory of Moral
Sentiments, till that of The Wealth of
Nations.

C

III.

FTER the publication of the Theory of s E c T. Moral Sentiments, Mr. Smith remained four years at Glafgow, difcharging his official duties with unabated vigour, and with increafing reputation. During that time, the plan of his lectures underwent a confiderable change. His ethical doctrines, of which he had now published fo valuable a part, occupied a much smaller portion of the course than formerly and accordingly, his attention was naturally directed to a more complete illuftration of the principles of jurifprudence and of political economy.

To this laft fubject, his thoughts appear to have been occafionally turned from a very early period of life. It is probable, that the interrupted friendship he had always mained with his old companion Mr. Ofwald,

had

III.

SECT. had fome tendency to encourage him in pro fecuting this branch of his ftudies; and the publication of Mr. Hume's political difcourfes, in the year 1752, could not fail to confirm him in thofe liberal views of commercial policy which had already opened to him in the courfe of his own inquiries. His long refidence in one of the most enlightened mercantile towns in this island, and the habits of intimacy in which he lived with the moft refpectable of its inhabitants, afforded him an opportunity of deriving what commercial information he ftood in need of, from the beft fources; and it is a circumftance no lefs honourable to their liberality than to his talents, that notwithstanding the reluctance fo common among men of business to liften to the conclufions of mere fpeculation, and the direct oppofition of his leading principles to all the old maxims of trade, he was able, before he quitted his fituation in the university, to rank fome very eminent merchants in the number of his profelytes*.

Among the ftudents who attended his lec tures, and whofe minds were not previously. warped by prejudice, the progrefs of his opinions, it may be reasonably fuppofed, was much more rapid. It was this clafs of his friends accordingly that firft adopted his fyf

* I mention this fact on the refpectable authority of James Ritchie, Efq. of Glasgow.

tem