182 ADAM SMITH. 



the accidental possession of a course of lectures already 

 delivered at Edinburgh in his earlier years ; and that, 

 had this course been directed to explain the learning 

 of the Schools, the rules of argumentation, the prin- 

 ciples of classification, and the limits of the various 

 branches of science, the proper office of logic, we 

 should not have heard of the somewhat unaccountable 

 theory which has been cited from Mr. Millar's note. 



After one course, however, of this description, he 

 taught Moral Philosophy for twelve years, with extra- 

 ordinary ability and the greatest success. It is most 

 deeply to be lamented that of the four branches into 

 which his course was divided, the two most interesting 

 should not have reached us, the MS. having been de- 

 stroyed a short time before his death. He first unfolded 

 the sublime and important truths of Natural Theology, 

 and the faculties and principles of the mind on which 

 it rests, by far the most elevated of all human specula- 

 tions, and one, as Archbishop Tillotson* has most 

 soundly declared, which so far from being worthy of 

 jealousy on their part who maintain the doctrines of 

 Eevelation, is of necessity the very foundation essen- 

 tial to support its fabric. Whether we regard the hopes 

 of man as built upon his unassisted reason, or as con- 

 firmed by the light of religion, no study can match 



* " All religion is founded upon right notions of God and his perfection, 

 insomuch that divine revelation itself does suppose those for its founda- 

 tions, and can signify (disclose or reveal) nothing to us unless they be first 

 known and believed. For unless we be first firmly persuaded of 'the pro- 

 vidence of God and of his superintendence over mankind, why should we 

 suppose that he makes any revelation of his will to us ? Unless it be first 

 actually known that God is a God of truth, what ground is there for be- 

 lieving his word ? So that the principles of natural religion are the foun- 

 dations of that which is revealed." (Serm. xli.) This sermon was preached 

 before the King and Queen, 27th October, 1692, at the thanksgiving for 

 the naval victory, and contains even a more searching exposure of the 

 errors of Romanism than the celebrated sermon (xl.) on the Church of 

 Rome. The sermon on " Steadfastness in Religion," seems to me his 

 Grace's other masterpiece in contending with Rome. It is a demonstra- 

 tion of the great practical doctrine of the right of private judgment, and it 

 tallies in spirit with the above passage in the 41st. 



