220 ADAM SMITH. 



at present gives you so much uneasiness, shall be understood 

 to do you as much honour as any thing that has ever hap- 

 pened to you. By endeavouring to unmask before the public 

 this hypocritical pedant, you run the risk of disturbing the 

 tranquillity of your whole life. By letting him alone he 

 cannot give you a fortnight's uneasiness. To write against 

 him is, you may depend upon it, the very thing he wishes 

 you to do. He is in danger of falling into obscurity in 

 England, and he hopes to make himself considerable by pro- 

 voking an illustrious adversary. He will have a great party, 

 the Church, the Whigs, the Jacobites, the whole wise Eng- 

 lish nation, who will love to mortify a Scotchman, and to 

 applaud a man that has refused a pension from the King. It 

 is not unlikely, too, that they may pay him very well for 

 having refused it, and that even he may have had in view 

 this compensation. Your whole friends here wish you not 

 to write the Baron d'Alembert, Madame Riccoboni, Made- 

 moiselle Riancourt, M. Turgot, &c., &c. M. Turgot, a friend 

 every way worthy of you, desired me to recommend this 

 advice to you in a particular manner, as his most earnest 

 entreaty and opinion. He and I are both afraid that you are 

 surrounded with evil counsellors, and that the advice of your 

 English literati, who are themselves accustomed to publish 

 all their little gossiping stories in newspapers, may have too 

 much influence upon you. Remember me to Mr. Walpole, 

 and believe me to be, with the most sincere affection, 



"Ever yours, 



"ADAM SMITH." 



" P.S. Make my apology to Miller for not having yet 

 answered his last very kind letter. I am preparing the 

 answer to it, which he will certainly receive by next post. 

 Remember me to Mrs. Miller. Do you ever see Mr. 

 Townshend?" 



After his return to Kirkaldy, and when engaged in his 

 great work he thus writes 



" MY DEAREST FRIEND, Kirkaldy, June 7th, 1767. 



" The principal design of this letter is to recommend to 

 your particular attention the Count de Sars field, the best and 



