ADAM SMITH. 207 



before exhibited by any of his predecessors. It had 

 also the merit of a most clear and simple style, with a 

 copiousness of illustration, whether from facts or from 

 imagination, attained by no other writer but Mr. Hume, 

 unsurpassed even by him, and which might well be 

 expected from the author of the 'Theory of Moral 

 Sentiments.' 



ANALYTICAL VIEW OF THE WEALTH OF NATIONS. 



I. Labour is the source of all human enjoyment; it 

 may be even reckoned the source of all possession, 

 because not even the property in severalty of the soil 

 can be obtained, without some exertion to acquire and 

 secure the possession ; while labour is also required to 

 obtain possession of its minerals, or of the produce 

 which grows uncultivated, or the animals which are 

 reared wild. All wealth, therefore, all objects of neces- 

 sary use, of convenience, of enjoyment, are either 

 created or fashioned, or in some way obtained, by 

 human labour. The first inquiry then, which presents 

 itself \ relates to the powers of labour ; the next to the 

 distribution of its produce. These two subjects are 

 treated in the first book of the ' Wealth of Nations,' 

 in eleven chapters, to which is added a kind of appen- 

 dix, called by the author a * Digression, upon Money 

 Prices,' or as he terms it, "the variations in the value 

 of silver, and the variations in the real prices of com- 

 modities." The unskilful and even illogical aspect of 

 this division is manifest ; for under the head of labour, 

 are comprehended the subjects of profit and rent as 

 well as wages. But subject to this objection against 

 the arrangement, and to the still more material objec- 

 tion which may be urged against one portion of the 

 doctrine, the first book is of very great value, and 

 unfolds at length the fundamental principles of econo- 

 mical science. 



i. The first sub-division relating to the powers of 



