Account of 
Dr Smith. 
122 HISTORY of the SOCIETY. 
no French performance on the fubjecét, that could be of much 
ufe to him in guiding his refearches*. In the year 1756, in- 
deed, M. Turcot (who is faid to have imbibed his firft no- 
tions concerning the unlimited freedom of commerce from an 
old merchant, M. Gournay) publifhed in the Encyclopedie, an 
article which fufficiently fhews how completely his mind was 
emancipated from the old prejudices in favour of commercial 
regulations: But that even then, thefe opinions were confined 
to a few fpeculative men in France, appears from a paflage in 
the Mémoires fur la Vie et les Ouvrages de M. Turcot ; inwhich, 
after a fhort quotation from the article juft mentioned, the au- 
thor adds: ‘*‘ Thefe ideas were then confidered as paradoxical; 
“ they are fince become common, and they will one day be 
‘* adopted univerfally.’’ 
Tue Political Difcourfes of Mr Hume were evidently of 
breater ufe to Mr Smiru, than any other book that had ap- 
peared prior to his letures. Even Mr Hume’s theories, how- 
ever, though always plaufible and ingenious, and in moft in- 
{tances profound and juft, involve fome fundamental miftakes ; 
and, when compared with Mr Smitu’s, afford a ftriking proof, 
that, in confidering a fubje&t fo extenfive and fo complicated, 
the moft penetrating fagacity, if directed only to particular 
queftions, is apt to be led aftray by firft appearances ; and that 
nothing can guard us effectually againft error, but a compre- 
henfive furvey of the whole field of difcuffion, affifted by an 
accurate and patient analyfis of the ideas about which our 
reafonings are employed.—It may be worth while to add, that 
Mr Hume’s Effay “ on the Jealoufy of Trade,” with fome other 
of his Political Difcourfes, received a very flattering proof of 
M. 
* In proof of this, it is fufficient for me to appeal to a fhort hiftory of the pro- 
grefs of political economy in France, publifhed in one of the volumes.of Ephemerz- 
des duCitoyen. See the firft part of the volume for the year 1769. The paper is 
entitled, Notice abrégée des différents Ecrits modernes, qui ont concouru em France @ 
former la fcience de P économie politique. 7 
