ADAM SMITH. 183 



that of Natural Theology in the loftiness of its nature, 

 and the importance of its tendency. "Neque enim 

 homines ad Deos ulla re propius accedunt quam salu- 

 tem hominibus dando." (Cic. 'Pro Lig.') He next 

 explained the doctrines of Ethics, or the rules and 

 principles by which men judge of the qualities in 

 point of wisdom and goodness, of human action. The 

 third division of his course was, properly speaking, a 

 branch of the second ; it embodied general jurispru- 

 dence, the structure of government, and the theory of 

 legislation. In the fourth and last branch he treated 

 of the principles upon which the wealth, power, and 

 generally the prosperity of communities depend, and of 

 the institutions relating to commerce, finance, instruc- 

 tion, and defined, in a word, the functions of govern- 

 ment as contradistinguished from its structure. Of the 

 second and fourth divisions he afterwards gave the 

 substance in his published works ; unhappily, the whole 

 of his papers containing the first and the third series of 

 Lectures, were destroyed by himself some time before 

 he died, together with the Lectures on Rhetoric, which 

 are described by Mr. Millar as having been composed 

 with extraordinary care, and as having contained critical 

 discussions of great delicacy of taste, as well as exten- 

 sive learning. I cannot help regarding it as a circum- 

 stance, however unfortunate for the world, peculiarly 

 happy for his executors, that these invaluable manu- 

 scripts were not left in their hands, with the injunction 

 which his will contained to burn them, for if ever men 

 can be conceived to lie under a temptation to strain at 

 placing their public duty in opposition to their private 

 obligations, it certainly would have been those eminent 

 persons, Dr. Black and Dr. Hutton, shrinking from the 

 painful office of performing the trusts of their friend's 

 will. 



While Dr. Smith was engaged in the duties of his 

 Professorship at Glasgow, he published the first works 

 which he gave to the world. In 1755 he contributed 



