Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 7.djvu/145

Rh logic as was requisite to gratify curiosity with respect to an artificial method of reasoning, which had once occupied the universal attention of the learned, lie dedicated all the rest of his time to the delivering of a system of rhetoric and belles lettres. The best method of explaining and illustrating the various powers of the human mind, the most useful part of metaphysics, arises from an examination of the several ways of communicating our thoughts by speech, and from an attention to the principles of those literary compositions which contribute to persuasion or entertainment. By these arts everything that we perceive or feel, every operation of our minds, is expressed and delineated in such a manner, that it may be clearly distinguished and remembered. There is at the same time no branch of literature more suited to youth at their first entrance upon philosophy than this, which lays hold of their taste and their feelings.

"It is much to be regretted that the manuscript, containing Mr Smith's lectures on this subject, was destroyed before his death. The first part, in point of composition, was highly finished; and the whole discovered strong marks of taste and original genius. From the permission given to students of taking notes, many observations and opinions contained in these lectures have either been detailed in separate dissertations, or engrossed in general collections, which have since been given to the public. But these, as might be expected, have lost the air of originality, and the distinctive character which they received from their first author, and are often obscured by that multiplicity of common-place matter in which they are sunk and involved.

" About a year after his appointment to the professorship of logic, Mr Smith was elected to the chair of moral philosophy. 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 at more 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.

"Upon this subject he followed the plan that seems to be suggested by Montesquieu; endeavouring to trace the gradual progress of jurisprudence, both public and private, from the rudest to the most refined ages, and to point out the effects of those arts which contribute to subsistence, and to the accumulation of property, in producing correspondent improvements, or alterations in law and government. This important branch of his labours he also intended to give to the public; but this intention, which is mentioned in the conclusion of the 'Theory of Moral Sentiments,' he did not live to fulfill.

"In the last part of his lectures he examined those political regulations which are founded, not upon the principle of justice, but 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 lie delivered on these subjects, contained the substance of the work he afterwards published under the title of 'An Inquiry into the Nature and Sources of the Wealth of Nations.'

"There was no situation in which the abilities of Mr 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 sub-