APPENDIX. 89 
obfervations of Mr Smirn would have fuggefted many new 
and important views concerning the internal and domeftic 
circumftances of thofe nations, which would have difplayed 
their feveral fyftems of policy, in a light much lefs artificial 
than that in which they have hitherto appeared.” 
Tue fame turn of thinking was frequently, in his focial 
hours, applied to more familiar fubjects ; and the fanciful theo- 
ries which, without the leaft affeCtation of ingenuity, he was 
continually ftarting upon all the common topics of difcourfe, 
gave to his converfation a novelty and variety that were quite 
inexhauftible. Hence too the minutenefs and accuracy of his 
knowledge on many trifling articles, which, in the courfe of his 
{peculations, he had been led to confider from fome new and 
interefting point of view; and of which his lively and circum- 
ftantial defcriptions amufed his friends the more, that he feem- 
ed to be habitually inattentive, in fo remarkable a degree, to 
what was pafling around him. 
I nave been led into thefe remarks by the Differtation on 
the Formation of Languages, which exhibits a very beautiful 
{pecimen of theoretical hiftory, applied to a fubject equally cu- 
rious and difficult. The analogy between the train of thinking 
from which it has taken its rife, and that which has fuggefted 
a variety of his other difquifitions, will, I hope, be a fufficient 
apology for the length of this digreflion; more particularly, as 
it will enable me to fimplify the account which I am to give 
afterwards, of his enquiries concerning political ceconomy. 
I suaAxx only obferve farther on this head, that when dif- 
ferent theoretical hiftories are propofed by different writers, of 
the progrefs of the human mind in any one line of exertion, 
thefe theories are not always to be underftood as ftanding in op- 
pofition to each other. If the progrefs delineated in all of 
them be plaufible, it is poffible at leaft, that they may all have 
been realized; for human affairs never exhibit, in any two in- 
ftances, a perfect uniformity. But whether they have been reali- 
zed or no, is often a queftion of little confequence. In moft cafes 
Vou. III. (M) it 
Account of 
Dr Smith. 
