ADAM SMITH. 179 



his remarks on English universities,* that the discipline 

 and habits of Oxford had in no way gained either his 

 affection or his respect. Probably he could not easily 

 forget the silly bigotry which caused his superiors to 

 seize his copy of Hume's ' Treatise of Human Nature' 

 when he was surprised reading it, and to administer a 

 reprimand for the offence. 



In 1748 he removed to Edinburgh, accompanied by 

 his mother ; and he read for about three years a course 

 of Lectures on Khetoric under the patronage of Lord 

 Kames, himself a very succcessful follower of critical 

 studies, and whose writings were the first to introduce 

 in this island a sound philosophy upon those subjects. 

 Dr. Smith also became intimately acquainted with the 

 eminent men of letters who then adorned the Scottish 

 capital, and some of whom were not yet well known 

 to the world. Mr. Hume, Dr. Robertson, Dr. Blair, 

 were among those literary men; Mr. Wedderburne after- 

 wards Lord Loughborough, and Mr. Johnstone after- 

 wards Sir William Pulteney, were severally members 

 of the Scottish Bar. In 1751 he was elected to the 

 Professorship of Logic in the University of Glasgow, 

 which he exchanged the year after for that of Moral 

 Philosophy. It had till four years before been filled by 

 Hutcheson, under whom he had studied with all the 

 admiration which the ingenuity and elqquence of that 

 great teacher so naturally inspired, and with the affec- 

 tion which was commanded by his amiable character. 



This important situation of a public teacher, one of 

 the most exalted to which any man can aspire, was 

 certainly of all others the most perfectly adapted to his 

 genius, as it was the best suited to his habits and his 

 tastes ; for the love of speculation was in him combined 

 with the desire of communicating information to others 

 and of promoting their improvement. Even in society 

 all his life, there was something didactic in the style of 



* Wealth of Nations,' book v., chap. 1 



