io 4 HISrORT of the SOCIETY. 



Account of " or coolnefs ; — on my part, with every advantage that could 



Dr Smith. ' ° 



u be expedted from the fociety of fuch a man. We continued 

 " to live in friendfhip till the hour of his death ; and I mall 

 " always remain with the impreffion of having loft a friend 

 " whom I loved and refpefted, not only for his great talents, 

 " but for every private virtue." 



The retirement in which Mr Smith palled his next ten 

 years formed a linking contraft to the unfettled mode of life 

 he had been for fome time accuftomed to, but was fo conge- 

 nial to his natural difpofition, and to his firft habits, that it was 

 with the utmoft difficulty he was ever perfuaded to leave it. 

 During the whole of this period, (with the exception of a few 

 vifits to Edinburgh and London), he remained with his mother 

 at Kirkaldy ; occupied habitually in intenfe ftudy, but unbend- 

 ing his mind at times in the company of fome of his old fchool- 

 fellows, whofe '■ fober wifhes" had attached them to the place 

 of their birth. In the fociety of fuch men, Mr Smith de- 

 lighted ; and tothem he was endeared, not only by his fimple 

 and unafTuming manners, but by the perfect knowledge they all 

 poflefled of thofe domeftic virtues which had diftinguiflied him 

 from his infancy. 



Mr Hume, who (as he tells us himfelf) confidered '* a town 

 " as the true fcene for a man of letters," made many attempts 

 to feduce him from his retirement. In a letter, dated in 1772, 

 he urges him to pafs fome time with him in Edinburgh. " I 

 " mail not take any excufe from your ftate of health, which 

 " I fuppofe only a fubterfuge invented by indolence and love 

 " of folitude. Indeed, my dear Smith, if you continue to 

 ** hearken to complaints of this nature, you will cut yourfelf 

 " out entirely from human fociety, to the great lofs of both 

 " parties." In another letter, dated in 1769, from his houfe 

 in James's Court, (which commanded a profpeel of the frith of 

 Forth, and of the oppofite coaft of Fife), " I am glad (fays he) to 

 * have come within fight of you 5 but as I would alfo be with- 



" ia 



