ADAM SMITH. 133 



the subject matter to attract. But it remained to give a 

 more ample exposition of the whole subject ; to explain 

 and to illustrate all the fundamental principles, many of 

 which had been left either assumed or ill defined, and 

 certainly not clearly laid down nor exhibited in their 

 connexion with the other parts of the inquiry; to purge 

 the theory of the new errors which had replaced those 

 exploded ; to expound the doctrines in a more catholic 

 and less sectarian spirit than the followers of Quesnay 

 displayed, and in a less detached and occasional manner 

 than necessarily prevailed in the Essays of Hume, though 

 from, his admirably generalizing mind no series of sepa- 

 rate discourses ever moulded themselves more readily 

 into a system. This service of inestimable value Dr. 

 Smith's great work rendered to science ; and it likewise 

 contained many speculations, and many deductions of 

 fact upon the details of economical inquiry, never 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, unsur- 

 passed 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 



