CHARACTERS. 
his time to the delivery of a system 
of rhetoric and belles lettres. The 
best method of explaining and il- 
lustrating the various powers of the 
human mind, the most useful part 
of metaphysics, arises from an ex- 
amination of the several ways of 
communicating our thougbts by 
speech, and from an attention to 
the principles of those literary com- 
positions, which contribute to per- 
Suasion or entertainment. By these 
arts, every thing that we perceive 
or feel, every operation of our 
minds, is expressed and delineated 
in such a manner, that it may be 
clearly disfinguished and remeinber- 
ed. 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 permis- 
sion given to students of taking 
notes, many observations and opi- 
nions, contained in these lectures, 
have either been detailed in sepa- 
rate dissertations, or ingrossed in 
general collections, which have 
since been given tothe public. But 
these, as might be expected, have 
lost the air of originality and the dis- 
tinctive character which they re- 
ceived from their first author, and 
are often obscured by that multi- 
plicity of common-place matter in 
which they are sunk and involved. 
About a year after his appoint- 
_ ment to the professorship of logic, 
Mr. Smith was elected to the chair 
of moral philosophy. His course of 
[*41 
lectures on this subject was divided 
into four parts. The first contained 
natural theology ; in which he con- 
sidered the proofs of the being and 
attributes of God, and those princi- 
ples 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 pub- 
lished in-his Theory of Moral Sen- 
timents. In the third part, he 
treated at morelength of that branch 
of morality which relates to justice, 
and which, being susceptible of pre- 
cise and accurate rules,.is, for that 
reason, capable of a full and parti- 
cular explanation. 
Upon this subject, he followed 
the plan that seems to be suggested 
by Montesquieu ; endeavouring to 
trace the gradual progress of juris- 
prudence, both public and _ private, 
from the rudest to the most refined 
ages, and to point out the effects of 
those arts which contribute to sub- 
sistence, apd to the accumulation of 
property, in producing correspoad- 
ent improvements or alterations in 
law and government. This im- 
portant 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 fulfil. 
In the last part of his lectures, 
he examined those political regula- 
tions which are founded, not upon 
the principle of justice, but that of 
expediency, and which are calcu- 
lated to increase the riches, the 
power and the prosperity of a state. 
Under this view, he considered the 
political institutions relating to com- 
merce, to finances, to ecclesiastical 
and military establishments. _What 
he delivered on these subjects con- 
tained 
