SMELT SMOLENSK. 



291 



and yet, at the end of five and a half days, not the 

 smallest diminution of the ambergris is perceptible ; 

 from which the extreme fineness of the effluvia 

 may be inferred. See Sense. 



SMELT (oswierws) ; a small but delicious fish, 

 allied to the salmon, inhabiting the salt water 

 about the mouths of rivers. Like the trouts, all 

 parts of the mouth are armed with long and pointed 

 teeth, and there are four or five upon the tongue. 

 The body is long, and somewhat compressed; the 

 eyes large and round, and the under jaw longest. 

 The European smelt is from three to six inches 

 long ; the head and body are semitransparent, with 

 the most brilliant tints of green, and silvery. It 

 has a strong odour, by many compared to that of 

 violets. It inhabits the sea as well as the depths 

 of those lakes which have a sandy bottom, and in 

 the spring ascends the rivers in great multitudes, 

 for the purpose of depositing its spawn. In certain 

 districts, it is extremely abundant. The American 

 smelt (osmerus viridescens, Les.) is considered a 

 different species. It grows to the length of ten 

 inches. The body is long, somewhat compressed, 

 green on the back, and silvery-white on the sides. 

 It inhabits the coasts of New England, and as far 

 as the Hudson, but is unknown farther south. It 

 is taken with the line. The flesh is highly es- 

 teemed. 



SMELTING. See Ores, Mine, Iron, Silver. 



SMITH, ADAM, a distinguished writer on morals 

 and politics, was the only son of Adam Smith, 

 controller of the customs at Kirkaldy, where he 

 was born June 5, 1723, a few months after the 

 death of his father. He received his early educa- 

 tion at the school of Kirkaldy, whence he was re- 

 moved, at the age of fourteen, to the university of 

 Glasgow, where he remained until 1740, when he 

 repaired to Baliol college, Oxford, as an exhibi- 

 tioner on Snell's foundation. Quitting Oxford, 

 and all views to the church, which had led him 

 there, in 1748, he took up his abode at Edinburgh, 

 and read some courses on rhetoric and polite lite- 

 rature, under the patronage of lord Kames. In 

 1751, he obtained a more permanent provision by 

 being elected professor of logic at Glasgow, and, 

 the year following, of moral philosophy at the same 

 university. . He was now in a situation which per- 

 fectly agreed with his talents and inclination, and 

 both in matter and manner his lectures were of the 

 highest merit. Those on moral philosophy con- 

 tained the rudiments of two of his most celebrated 

 publications, of which the first, entitled the Theory 

 of Moral Sentiments, appeared in 1795, and was 

 most favourably received. His moral theory is 

 founded upon sympathy, which he makes the 

 source of all our sentiments on the propriety or 

 impropriety of actions. To this work he after- 

 wards added an Essay on the Origin of Languages; 

 and the elegance and acuteness displayed in these 

 treatises introduced him to several eminent persons, 

 and, among others, to Mr Charles Townsend, who 

 engaged him, in 1763, to attend the duke of Buc- 

 cleugh in his travels. A long residence in France 

 with this nobleman introduced him to the acquaint- 

 ance of Turgot, Quesnay, Necker, D'Alembert, 

 Helvetius, and Marmontel, to several of whom he 

 was recommended by David Hume. He returned 

 to Scotland in 1766, and immediately retired, with 

 his mother, to Kirkaldy, where he led a life of 

 strict study and retirement for ten years, the fruit 

 of which was his celebrated Inquiry into the 

 Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (2 



vols. 4to., 1776.) It is unnecessary to say that 

 this work has become a standard classic, and that 

 it may be deemed the formal precursor of the 

 modern science of political economy. (See Poli- 

 tical Economy.) About two years after the publi- 

 cation of this able production, he obtained, through 

 the patronage of the duke of Buccleugh, the lucra- 

 tive place of commissioner of the customs in Scot- 

 land, in consequence of which he removed, with 

 his mother, who attained a great age, to Edinburgh. 

 In 1787, he was chosen rector of the university of 

 Glasgow ; and soon after his health began to decline, 

 and he sunk under a chronic disease, in July, 1790, 

 at the age of sixty-seven. A short time before his 

 death, he ordered all his manuscripts to be . burnt, 

 except a few detached essays. Doctor Smith was 

 a man of much simplicity of character, subject to 

 absence of mind in society, and better fitted for 

 speculation than action. He was, at the same 

 time, much beloved by his friends for his kind and 

 benignant disposition, and died generally admired 

 and highly respected. (See his Life by Dugald 

 Stewart, and Mackintosh's Progress of Ethical 

 Science.) 



SMITH, CHARLOTTE, an ingenious but unfortu- 

 nate English poetess and novel-writer, was born in 

 1749, and married, at a very early age, a West 

 India merchant, whose imprudence, aggravated (if 

 we are to believe the allusions of his wife in her 

 fictitious narratives) by legal chicanery, ultimately 

 dissipated the whole of a once handsome property, 

 and consigned its former possessor to a prison. In 

 this melancholy situation, his wife dedicated her 

 talents to the support of her husband and family. 

 Her principal novels are her Romance of Real Life; 

 Emeline; Desmond; Marchmont; Ethelinda; Old 

 Manor House; Celestina, &c. Much of the latter 

 part of her life was passed in Normandy. She died 

 in England in 1806. Besides the works already 

 mentioned, Mrs Smith wrote several pleasing 

 volumes for young persons, and two volumes of 

 sonnets. 



SMITHFIELD; a square in London, in which 

 the greatest cattle-market in England is held, as is 

 also Bartholomew fair. The spot is still shown 

 where heretics were formerly burnt. 



SMOKING TOBACCO. See Tobacco. 



SMOLENSK, BATTLE OF. Smolensk, one of 

 the oldest cities in the Russian empire, formerly 

 belonging to Poland, the key to the interior of the 

 empire, situated on the left bank of the Dnieper, 

 contains about 1500 houses and 12,000 inhabitants. 

 Under the walls of this city, August 8, 1812, the 

 two main divisions of the Russian forces, under 

 Barclay de Tolly and Bagration, united, after 

 tiresome marches and great loss, and formed a plan 

 to attack the French troops, whom they had hitherto 

 avoided. But on the 16th, Napoleon appeared 

 before Smolensk, and occupied the heights. Junot 

 was directed to march to the right with the fifth 

 division (the Westphalian), to cut off the Russians 

 from the route to Moscow. Ney commanded the 

 left wing; Poniatowski the right, and Davoust the 

 centre. In the beginning of the year, Smolensk 

 had been strengthened as much as possible. But 

 Barclay de Tolly, on account of the superior 

 force of Napoleon, was unwilling to venture 

 a general engagement, as the French had suc- 

 ceeded in completely surrounding his left wing. 

 He stationed himself, therefore, in the rear of the 

 city, and, to make it an effectual means for cover- 

 ing his retreat, occupied it with two divisions, so 

 T 2 



