ADAM SMITH. 201 



of the first part, on the influence of success, or the event, 

 upon our feelings and judgments of actions, what the 

 author terms the influence of fortune, has great origin- 

 ality, and is at once judicious and profound. The like 

 may be said of the fifth part, which treats of the influ- 

 ence of custom and fashion. 



Lastly. The admirable felicity, and the inexhaustible 

 variety of the illustrations in which the work every- 

 where abounds, sheds a new and a strong light upon 

 all the most important principles of human nature ; and 

 affords an explanation of many things which are wholly 

 independent of any theory whatever, and which de- 

 serves to be known and understood, whatever theory 

 may obtain our assent. 



The beauty of the illustrations, and the eloquence of 

 the diction, are indeed a great merit of this work. 

 That the author living nearly twenty years in a College, 

 or in a small country town, and with his habits, both of 

 study and mental absence or distraction, should have 

 all the while been so curious an observer even of 

 minute particulars in conduct, manners, habits, is ex- 

 ceedingly singular, and seems to justify a conjecture 

 of Mr. Stewart, that he often gave a partial attention 

 to what was passing around him, and was afterwards 

 able to recall it by an effort of recollection, as if he 

 had given his whole mind to it at the time. His style, 

 indeed, is peculiarly good ; his diction is always ap- 

 propriate and expressive, quite natural, often pictur- 

 esque, even racy and idiomatic beyond what men are 

 apt to acquire who gather their language rather from 

 books than from habitually hearing it spoken by the 

 natives. Johnson, though an Englishman, has filled his 

 * Rambler' with very inferior English, in comparison of 

 such passages as these : " We seldom resent our friends 

 being at enmity with our friends, though upon that 

 account we may sometimes affect to make an awkward 

 quarrel with them ; but we quarrel with them in good 

 earnest, if they live in friendship with our enemies." 



