APPENDIX. 57 



the fcanty materials, which form the iirft part of this narra- ^™ nt h of 

 tive. 



Among thefe companions of his earlieft years, Mr Smith 

 foon attracted notice, by his pafTion for books, and by the 

 extraordinary powers of his memory. The weaknefs of his 

 bodily conftitution prevented him from partaking in their more 

 active amufements ', but he was much beloved by them on ac- 

 count of his temper, which, though warm, was to an uncom- 

 mon degree friendly and generous. Even then he was re- 

 markable for thofe habits which remained with him through 

 life, of fpeaking to himfelf when alone, and of abfence in 

 company. 



From the grammar-fchool of Kirkaldy, he was lent, in 

 1737, to the Univerfity of Glafgow, where he remained till 

 1740, when he went to Balliol College, Oxford, as an exhibi- 

 tioner on Snell's foundation. 



Dr Maclaine of the Hague, who was a fellow-ftudent of 

 Mr Smith's at Glafgow, told me fome years ago, that his fa- 

 vourite purfuits while at that Univerfity were Mathematics and 

 Natural Philofophy ; and I remember to have heard my father 

 remind him of a geometrical problem of considerable difficulty, 

 about which he was occupied at the time when their acquaint- 

 ance commenced, and which had been propofed to him as an 

 exercife by the celebrated Dr Simpson. 



These, however, were certainly not the fciences in which 

 he was formed to excel ; nor did they long divert him from 

 purfuits more congenial to his mind. What Lord Bacon fays 

 of Plato may be juftly applied to him: " Ilium, licet ad 

 " rempublicam non acceffilTet, tamen natura et inclinatione 

 " omnino ad res civiles propenfum, vires eo prsecipue intendille ; 

 " neque de Philofophia Naturali admodum follicitum efle ; nifi 

 " quatenus ad Philofophi nomen et celebritatem tuendam, et 

 " ad majeftatem quandam moralibus et civilibus doctrinis ad- 

 " dendam et afpergendam fufficeret*." The ftudy of human 



Vol. III. (H) nature 



* Redargutio Philofophiarum. 



