Account of 
Dr Smith. 
88 HISTORY of the SOCIETY. 
dergo. It is thus, that in his occafional elucidations of the Ro- 
man jurifprudence, inftead of bewildering himfelf among the 
erudition of fcholiafts and of antiquaries, we frequently find 
him borrowing his lights from the moft remote and unconnet- 
ed quarters of the globe, and combining the cafual obfervations 
of illiterate travellers and navigators, into a philofophical com- 
mentary on the hiftory of law and of manners. 
Tue advances made in this line of enquiry fince MonTEs- 
qu1Eu’s time have been great. Lord Kanes, in his Hiftorical 
Law Traéts, has given fome excellent fpecimens of it, particu- 
larly in his Eflays on the Hiftory of Property and of Criminal 
Law, and many ingenious fpeculations of the fame kind occur 
in the works of Mr Mitrar. . 
In Mr SmitTH’s writings, whatever be the nature of his fub- 
ject, he feldom miffes an opportunity of indulging his curiofity, 
in tracing from the principles of human nature, or from the 
circum{tances of fociety, the origin of the opinions and the in- 
ftitutions which he defcribes. I formerly mentioned a fragment 
concerning the hiftory of aftronomy which he has left for publi- 
cation ; and I have heard him fay more than once, that he had 
projected, in the earlier part of his life, a hiftory of the other 
{ciences on the fame plan. In his Wealth of Nations, various 
difquifitions are introduced which have a like obje¢t in view ; 
particularly the theoretical delineation he has given of the na- 
tural progrefs of opulence in a country; and his inveftigation 
of the canfes which have inverted this order in the different 
countries of modern Europe. His lectures on jurifprudence 
feem, from the account of them formerly given, to have a- 
bounded in fuch enquiries. 
I Am informed by the fame gentleman who favoured me with 
the account of Mr Smiru’s lectures at Glafgow, that he had heard 
him fometimes hint an intention of writing a treatife upon the 
Greek and Roman republics. ‘‘ And after all that has been pu- 
“ blithed on that fubject, [am convinced, (fays he), that the 
I “ obfervations 
