88 HIS TORT of the SOCIETK 



Account of dergo. It is thus, that in his occasional elucidations of the Ro- 

 man jurifprudence, inftead of bewildering himfelf among the 

 erudition of fcholiafts and of antiquaries, we frequently find 

 him borrowing his lights from the moft remote and unconnect- 

 ed quarters of the globe, and combining the cafual obfervations 

 of illiterate travellers and navigators, into a philofophical com- 

 mentary on the hiftory of law and of manners. 



The advances made in this line of enquiry fince Montes- 

 quieu's time have been great. Lord Kames, in his Hiftorical 

 Law Tracts, has given fome excellent fpecimens of it, particu- 

 larly in his Eflays on the Hiftory of Property and of Criminal 

 Law, and many ingenious fpeculations of the fame kind occur 

 in the works of Mr Millar. >» 



In Mr Smith's writings, whatever be the nature of his fub- 

 ject, he feldom milTes an opportunity of indulging his curiofity, 

 in tracing from the principles of human nature, or from the 

 circumftances of fociety, the origin of the opinions and the in- 

 ftitutions which he defcribes. I formerly mentioned a fragment 

 concerning the hiftory of aftronomy which he has left for publi- 

 cation ; and I have heard him fay more than once, that he had 

 projected, in the earlier part of his life, a hiftory of the other 

 fciences on the fame plan. In his Wealth of Nations, various 

 difquifitions are introduced which have a like object in view ; 

 particularly the theoretical delineation he has given of the na- 

 tural progrefs of opulence in a country ; and his inveftigation 

 of the caufes which have inverted this order in the different 

 countries of modern Europe. His lectures on jurifprudence 

 feem, from the account of them formerly given, to have a- 

 bounded in fuch enquiries. 



I am informed by the fame gentleman who favoured me with 

 the account of Mr Smith's lectures at Glafgow,that he had heard 

 him fometimes hint an intention of writing a treatife upon the 

 Greek and Roman republics. " And after all that has been pu- 

 " blilhed on that fubject, I am convinced, (fays he), that the 



i " obfervations 



