280 ADAM SMITH. 



post is just going, and then sometimes business or com- 

 pany, but oftener laziness, hinders me. Tar water is a 

 remedy very much in vogue here at present for almost all 

 diseases. It has perfectly cured me of an inveterate scurvy 

 and shaking in the head. I wish you'd try it. I fancy it 

 might be of service to you." In another letter he says he 

 had had the scurvy and shaking as long as he remembered 

 anything, and that the tar water had not removed those 

 complaints. 



29th November, 1743. " I am just recovered of a violent 

 fit of laziness, which has confined me to my elbow-chair 

 these three months." 



It should seem as if his habitual absence had assumed a 

 marked form at that time. The description resembles that 

 of a hypochondriacal malady. He was then only twenty 

 years old. 



I have likewise had access to some letters which he wrote 

 afterwards to Lord Hailes, and, through the kindness of 

 the Eoyal Society of Edinburgh, to such of his letters as 

 are in the papers of David Hume. 



The following letter to Lord Hailes, dated 5th March, 

 1769, gives the germ of some of his speculations, but it is 

 also curious as giving his very strong and very rash opinion 

 against the decision of the great Douglas Cause. 



" MY LOBD, KIRKALDY, March 5, 1769. 



" I should now be extremely obliged to your Lordship 

 if you would send me the papers you mentioned upon the 

 prices of provisions in former times. In order that the con- 

 veyance may be perfectly secure, if your Lordship will give 

 me leave, I shall send my own servant sometime this week 

 to receive them at your Lordship's house at Edinburgh. I 

 have not been able to get the papers in the cause of Lord 

 Galloway and Lord Morton. If your Lordship is possessed 

 of them it would likewise be a great obligation if you could 

 send me them. I shall return both as soon as possible. If 

 your Lordship will give me leave I shall transcribe the 

 MSS. papers; this, however, entirely depends upon your 

 Lordship. 



" Since the last time I had the honour of writing to your 

 Lordship, I have read over with more care than before the 



