APPENDIX. 115 



prefcribed to mvfelf at prefent. A diflin<5l analyfis of his work ^ cc s ^ or 

 might indeed be ufeful to many readers 5 but it would itfelf 

 form a volume of confiderable magnitude. I may perhaps, 

 at fome future period, prefent to the Society, an attempt to- 

 wards fuch an analyfis, which I began long ago, for my own 

 fatisfaclion, and which I lately made confiderable progrefs in 

 preparing for the prefs, before I was aware of the impofiibility 

 of connecting it, with the general plan of this paper. In the 

 mean time, 1 (hall content myfelf with remarking, that the 

 great and leading object of Mr Smith's fpeculations is to illu- 

 strate the provifion made by nature in the principles of the hu- 

 man mind, and in the circumftances of man's external fitua- 

 tion, for a gradual and progreflive augmentation in the means 

 of national wealth ; and to demonflrate, that the moil effectual 

 plan for advancing a people to greatnefs, is to maintain that 

 order of things which nature has pointed out ; by allowing 

 every man, as long as he obferves the rules of juflice, to pur- 

 fue his own intereil in his own way, and to bring both his in- 

 duflry and his capital into the freed: competition with thofe 

 of his fellow citizens. Every fyftem of policy which endea- 

 vours, either by extraordinary encouragements, to draw to- 

 wards a particular fpecies of induflry a greater fhare of the ca- 

 pital of the fociety than what would naturally go to it ; or, by 

 extraordinary reftraints, to force from a particular fpecies of 

 induflry fome fhare of the capital which would otherwife be 

 employed in it, is, in reality, fubverfive of the great purpofe 

 which it means to promote. 



What the circumftances are, which, in modern Europe, have 

 contributed to diflurb this order of nature, and, in particular, 

 to encourage the induflry of towns, at the expence of that of 

 the country, Mr Smith has invefligated with great ingenuity ; 

 and in fuch a manner, as to throw much new light on the hiflory 



3 (P2) of 



