a 



a 



124 HISTORT of the SOCIETr. 



Account of portant opinions in the Wealth of Nations are there detail- 



Dr Smith. l ■ 1 ' <♦ 11 • 1- 



ecl ; but I ihall only quote the following Sentences. " Man 

 " is generally confidered by ftatefmen and projectors as the 

 materials of a fort of political mechanics. Projectors dif- 

 turb nature in the courfe of her operations in human af- 

 fairs ; and it requires no more than to let her alone, and 

 give her fair play in the purfuit of her ends, that fhe may 

 eftablifh her own defigns." — And in another paflTage : " Little 

 " elfe is requifite to carry a (late to the higheft degree of opu- 

 " lence from the lowed barbarifm, but peace, eafy taxes, and 

 " a tolerable administration of juftice ; all the reft being 

 " brought about by the natural courfe of things. All govern- 

 " ments which thwart this natural courfe, which force things 

 " into another channel, or which endeavour to arreft the pro- 

 '* grefs of fociety at a particular point, are unnatural, and to 

 " fupport themfelves are obliged to be oppreflive and tyranni- 



" cal. A great part of the opinions (he obferves) enu- 



" merated in this paper is treated of at length in fome lec- 

 " tures which I have ftill by me, and which were written in 

 " the hand of a clerk who left my fervice fix years ago. They 

 " have all of them been the conftant fubjects of my lectures 

 " fince I firft taught Mr Craigie's clafs, the firft winter I 

 " fpent in Glafgow, down to this day, without any confi- 

 " derable variation. They had all of them been the fub- 

 " jecls of ledures which I read at Edinburgh the winter 

 " before I left it, and I can adduce innumerable witneffes, both 

 " from that place and from this, who will afcertain them fuffi- 

 " ciently to be mine." 



After all, perhaps the merit of fuch a work as Mr Smith's 

 is to be eftimated lefs from the novelty of the principles it con- 

 tains, than from the reafonings employed to fupport thefe prin- 

 ciples, and from the fcientific manner in which they are un- 

 folded in their proper order and connection. General alfer- 



tions 



