ADAM SMITH. 113 



while the singular modesty and simplicity" of the man 

 had a powerful attraction for so congenial a nature. 

 He was, as is well known, only prevented by Quesnay's 

 death from dedicating to him the ' Wealth of Nations/ 

 It appears by a letter of Morellet, published in his 

 Memoirs, that notwithstanding Dr. Smith's residence at 

 Toulouse, and his intimate acquaintance with the French 

 language, he had never so far mastered it as to speak it 

 tolerably well; but he could, though difficultly, converse 

 in it without much inconvenience. " II parloit," says the 

 Abbe, "fort mal notre langue, mais nous parlames theorie 

 commerciale, banque, credit publique, &c." As the 

 date of 1762 is given for this acquaintance, it might be 

 deemed that this applies to his passing through Paris in 

 1764, rather than his residence there in 1766; but as 

 the Abbe mentions having seen and conversed with him 

 repeatedly, and adds, that Turgot, as well as Helvetius, 

 had made his acquaintance, the time referred to must 

 have been at his return from the south; for the twelve 

 days spent at Paris, on his way to Toulouse, could not 

 have given time to form their acquaintance. 



Upon his return to England in the autumn of 1766, he 

 went to reside with his mother at his native town of 

 Kirkaldy, and remained there for ten years. All the 

 attempts of his friends in Edinburgh to draw him thither 

 were vain; and from a kind and lively letter of Mr. 

 Hume upon the subject, complaining that though within 

 sight of him on the opposite side of the Frith of Forth, 

 he could not have speech of him, it appears that no one 

 was aware of the occupations in which those years were 

 passed. At length, early in 1776, the mystery was 

 explained by the appearance of his great work the 



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