APPENDIX. 107 



SECTION IV. 



Of The Inquiry into the Nature and Caufes of the Wealth of 



+ Nations *. 



A 



N hiftorical review of the different forms under which ^smlth * 



human affairs have appeared in different ages and na- 

 tions, naturally fuggefts the queftion, Whether the experience 

 of former times may not now furnifli fome general principles 

 to enlighten and direct the policy of future legiflators ? The 

 difcuffion, however, to which this queftion leads is of Angular 

 difficulty ; as it requires an accurate analyfis of by far the mod 

 complicated clafs of phenomena that can poffibly engage our 

 attention, thofe which refult from the intricate and often the 

 imperceptible mechanifm of political fociety ; — a fubjedl of ob- 

 fervation which feems, at firft view, fo little commenfurate to 

 our faculties, that it has been generally regarded with the fame 

 paffive emotions of wonder and fubmiffion, with which, in the 

 material world, we furvey the effects produced, by the myfteri- 

 ous and uncontroulable operation of phyfical caufes. It is for- 

 tunate that upon this, as on many other occafions, the difficul- 

 ties which had long baffled the efforts of folitary genius begin 

 to appear lefs formidable to the united exertions of the race ; 

 and that in proportion as the experience and the reafonings of 

 different individuals are brought to bear upon the fame objects, 

 and are combined in fuch a manner as to illuftrate and to limit 

 .each other, the fcience of politics affumes more and more that 



(O 2) fyftematical 



* The length to which this Memoir has already extended, together with fome 

 other reafons which it is unnecefiary to mention here, have induced me, in print- 

 ing the following fection, to confine myfelf to a much more general view of the 

 fubjecT: than I once intended. 



