Account of 

 Dr Smith. 



62 BISTORT of the SOCIETr. 



finifhed ; and the whole difcovered ftrong marks of tafte and 

 original genius. From the permiflion given to ftudents of 

 taking notes, many obfervations and opinions contained in 

 thefe lectures, have either been detailed in feparate diiTertations, 

 or ingrofTed in general collections, which have fince been given 

 to the public. But thefe, as might be expected, have loft the 

 air of originality and the diftinctive character which they re- 

 ceived from their firft author, and are often obfcured by that 

 multiplicity, of common-place matter in which they are funk 

 and involved. 



" About a year after his appointment to the ProfefTbrfhip of 

 Lo^ic, Mr Smith was elected to the chair of Moral Philofophy. 

 His courfe of lectures on this fubject was divided into four parts. 

 The firft contained Natural Theology ; in which he confidered 

 the proofs of the being and attributes of God, and thofe prin- 

 ciples of the human mind upon which religion is founded. 

 The fecond comprehended Ethics ftrictly fo called, and confifted 

 chiefly of the doctrines which he afterwards published in his 

 Theory of Moral Sentiments. In the third part, he treated at 

 more length of that branch of morality which relates to jujlice, 

 and which, being fufceptible of precife and accurate rules, is, 

 for that reafon, capable of a full and particular explanation. • 



" Upon this fubject, he followed the plan that feems to be 

 fuggefted by Montesquieu ; endeavouring to trace the gradual 

 progrefs of jurifprudence, both public and private, from the 

 rudefl to the mod refined ages, and to point out the effects of 

 thofe arts which contribute to fubfiftence. and to the accumula- 

 tion of property, in producing correfpondent improvements or 

 alterations in law and government. This important branch of 

 his labours he alfo intended to give to the public ; but this in- 

 tention, which is mentioned in the conclusion of the Theory 

 of Moral Sentiments, he did not live to fulfil. 



" In the iaft part of his lectures, he examined thofe politi- 

 cal regulations which are founded, not upon the principle of 



jnjlice, 



