198 ADAM SMITH. 



the illustrations keeps pace with the closeness of the 

 reasoning ; and wherever the received prejudices of 

 lawgivers are to be overcome, or popular errors to be 

 encountered, the arguments, and the facts, and the ex- 

 planations are judiciously given with extraordinary ful- 

 ness, the author wisely disregarding all imputations of 

 prolixity or repetition, in pursuit of the great end of 

 making himself understood, and gaining the victory over 

 error. The chapter on the Mercantile System is an 

 example of this ; but the errors of that widely prevailing 

 theory and its deeply-rooted prejudices are also encoun- 

 tered occasionally in almost every other part of the 

 work. 



It is a lesser, but a very important merit, that the 

 style of the writing is truly admirable. There is not a 

 book of better English to be any where found. The 

 language is simple, clear, often homely like the illustra- 

 tions, not seldom idiomatic, always perfectly adapted to 

 the subject handled. Beside its other perfections, it is 

 one of the most entertaining of books. There is no 

 laying it down after you begin to read. You are drawn 

 on from page to page by the strong current of the argu- 

 ments, the manly sense of the remarks, the fulness and 

 force of the illustrations, the thickly strewed and happily 

 selected facts. Nor can it ever escape observation, that 

 the facts, far from being a mere bede-roll of details un- 

 connected with principle and with each other, derive 

 their whole interest from forming parts of a whole, and 

 reflecting the general views which they are intended to 

 exemplify or to support. 



This admirable work has received the aid of several 

 learned and able commentators, of whom Professor 



