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out, to all the little paffions connected with S ECT. the factions of the times in which he wrote. Whoever takes the trouble to compare the general tone of his compofition with the period of its first publication, cannot fail to feel and acknowledge the force of this remark.-It is not often that a difinterested zeal for truth has fo foon met with its juft reward. Philofophers (to ufe an expreffion of Lord Bacon's) are "the fervants of pofterity;" and most of those who have devoted their talents to the beft interefts of mankind, have been obliged, like Bacon, to "bequeath their fame" to a race yet unborn, and to confole themfelves with the idea of fowing what another genera tion was to reap:

Infere Daphni pyros, carpent tua poma nepotes.

Mr. Smith was more fortunate; or rather, in this refpect, his fortune was fingular. He furvived the publication of his work only fifteen years; and yet, during that short period, he had not only the fatisfaction of feeing the oppofition it at firft excited, gradually fubfide, but to witness the practical influence of his writings on the commercial policy of his country.

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Conclufion of the Narrative.

ABOUT two years after the publication of

"The Wealth of Nations," Mr. Smith was appointed one of the Commiffioners of His Majesty's Customs in Scotland; a preferment which, in his eftimation, derived an additional value from its being beftowed on him at the request of the Duke of Buccleuch. The greater part of these two years he paffed in London, enjoying a fociety too extenfive and varied to afford him any opportunity of indulging his tafte for ftudy. His time, however, was not loft to himself; for much of it was spent with fome of the first names in English literature. Of thefe no unfavourable fpecimen is preferved by Dr. Barnard, in his well-known "Verfes addreffed to Sir Joshua, "Reynolds and his friends."

If I have thoughts, and can't express 'em,
Gibbon fhall teach me how to drefs 'em

In words felect and terfe:

Jones teach me modefty and Greek,
Smith how to think, Burke how to speak,
And Beauclerc to converse*.

In confequence of Mr. Smith's appointment to the Board of Customs, he removed,

See Annual Regifter for the year 1776.

in 1778, to Edinburgh, where he spent the s laft twelve years of his life; enjoying an af fluence which was more than equal to all his wants; and, what was to him of still greater value, the profpect of paffing the remainder of his days among the companions of his youth.

His mother, who, though now in extreme old age, ftill poffeffed a confiderable degree of health, and retained all her faculties unimpaired, accompanied him to town; and his coufin Mifs Jane Douglas (who had formerly been a member of his family at Glasgow, and for whom he had always felt the affection of a brother) while fhe divided with him thofe tender attentions which her aunt's infirmities required, relieved him of a charge for which he was peculiarly ill qualified, by her friendly fuperintendence of his domeftic economy.

The acceffion to his income which his new office brought him, enabled him to gratify, to a much greater extent than his former circumstances admitted of, the natural generofity of his difpofition; and the state of his funds at the time of his death, compared with his very moderate establishment, confirmed, beyond a doubt, what his intimate acquaintances had often fufpected, that a large proportion of his annual favings was allotted to offices of fecret charity. A fmall, but excellent library, which he had gradually formed

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S E C T. with great judgment in the selection; and a fimple, though hospitable table, where, without the formality of an invitation, he was always happy to receive his friends, were the only expences that could be confidered as his

own *.

The change in his habits which his removal to Edinburgh produced, was not equally favourable to his literary pursuits. The duties of his office, though they required but little exertion of thought, were yet fufficient to wafte his spirits and to diffipate his attention; and now that his career is clofed, it is impoffible to reflect on the time they confumed, without lamenting, that it had not been employed in labours more profitable to the world, and more equal to his mind.

During the firft years of his refidence in this city, his ftudies feemed to be entirely fufpended; and his paffion for letters ferved only to amufe his leifure, and to animate his converfation. The infirmities of age, of which he very early began to feel the approaches, reminded him at laft, when it was too late,

Some very affecting inftances of Mr. Smith's beneficence, in cafes where he found it impoffible to conceal entirely his good offices, have been mentioned to me by a near relation of his, and one of his moft confidential friends, Mifs Rofs, daughter of the late Patrick Rofs, Efq. of Innernethy. They were all on a scale much beyond what might have been expected from his fortune; and were accompanied with circumftances equally honourable to the delicacy of his feelings and the liberality of his heart.

V.

of what he yet owed to the public, and to his S ECT. own fame. The principal materials of the works which he had announced, had been long ago collected; and little probably was wanting, but a few years of health and retirement, to bestow on them that fyftematical arrangement in which he delighted; and the ornaments of that flowing, and apparently artlefs ftyle, which he had ftudiously culti vated, but which, after all his experience in compofition, he adjusted, with extreme difficulty, to his own tafte *.

The death of his mother in 1784, which was followed by that of Mifs Douglas in 1788, contributed, it is probable, to fruftate thefe projects. They had been the objects of his affection for more than fixty years; and in their fociety he had enjoyed, from his infancy, all that he ever knew of the endearments of a family. He was now alone, and helpless; and, though he bore his lofs with

*Mr. Smith observed to me, not long before his death, that after all his practice in writing, he composed as flowly, and with as great difficulty, as at firft. He added, at the same time, that Mr. Hume had acquired so great a facility in this respect, that the laft volumes of his Hiftory were printed from his original copy, with a few marginal corrections.

It may gratify the curiosity of fome readers to know, that when Mr. Smith was employed in compofition, he generally walked up and down his apartment, dictating to a fecretary. All Mr. Hume's works (I have been affured) were written with his own hand. A critical reader may, I think, perceive in the different ftyles of these two claffical writers, the effects of their different modes of study.

equani