[[27]]
Some very affecting instances of Mr Smith's beneficence, in
cases where he found it impossible to conceal entirely his good
offices, have been mentioned to me by a near relation of his, and
one of his most confidential friends, Miss Ross, daughter of the
late Patrick Ross, Esq. of Innernethy. They were all on a scale
much beyond what might have been expected from his fortune; and
were accompanied with circumstances equally honourable to the
delicacy of his feelings and the liberality of his heart.
[[28]]
Mr Smith observed to me, not long before his death, that
after all his practice in writing, he composed slowly, and with
as great difficulty, as at first. He added, at the same time,
that Mr Hume had acquired so great a facility in this respect,
that the last volumes of his History were printed from his
original copy, with a few marginal corrections.
It may gratify the curiosity of some readers to know, that
when Mr Smith was employed in composition, he generally walked up
and down his apartment, dictating to a secretary. All Mr Hume's
works (I have been assured) were written in his own hand. A
critical reader may, I think, perceive in the different styles of
these two classical writers, the effects of their different modes
of study.
[[30]]
Since writing the above, I have been favoured by Dr Hutton
with the following particulars.
"Some time before his last illness, when Mr Smith had
occasion to go to London, he enjoined his friends, to whom he had
entrusted the disposal of his manuscripts, that, in the event of
his death, they should destroy all the volumes of his lectures,
doing with the rest of his manuscripts what they pleased. When
now he had become weak, and saw the approaching period of his
life, he spoke to his friends again upon the same subject. They
entreated him to make his mind easy, as he might depend upon
their fulfilling his desire. He was then satisfied. But some days
afterwards, finding his anxiety not entirely removed, he begged
one of them to destroy the volumes immediately. This accordingly
was done; and his mind was so much relieved, that he was able to
receive his friends in the evening with his usual complacency.
They had been in use to sup with him every Sunday; and that
evening there was a pretty numerous meeting of them. Mr Smith not
finding himself able to sit up with them as usual, retired to bed
before supper; and, as he went away, took leave of his friends by
saying "I believe we must adjourn this meeting to some other
place." He died a very few days afterwards."
Mr Riddell, an intimate friend of Mr Smith's, who was present
at one of the conversations on the subject of the manuscripts,
mentioned to me, in addition to Dr Hutton's note, that Mr Smith
regretted 'he had done so little'. But I meant (said he) to have
done more; and there are materials in my papers, of which I could
have made a great deal. But that is now out of the question.'
That the idea of destroying such unfinished works as might be
in his possession at the time of his death, was not the effect of
any sudden or hasty resolution, appears from the following letter
to Mr Hume, written by Mr Smith in 1773, at a time when he was
preparing himself for a journey to London, with the prospect of a
pretty long absence from Scotland.
Edinburgh, 16th April 1773.
My dear Friend,
As I have left the care of all my literary papers to you,
I must tell you, that except those which I carry along with me,
there are none worth the publication, but a fragment of a great
work, which contains a history of the astronomical systems that
were successively in fashion down to the time of Des Cartes.
Whether that might not be published as a fragment of an intended
juvenile work, I leave entirely to your judgment, though I begin
to suspect myself that there is paper book in my back room. All
the other loose papers which you will find in that desk, or
within the glass folding doors of a bureau which stands in my bed
room, together with about eighteen thin paper folio books, which
you will likewise find within the same glass folding doors, I
desire to be destroyed without any examination. Unless I die very
suddenly, I shall take care that the papers I carry with me shall
be carefully sent to you.
I ever am, my dear Friend, most faithfully your's
Adam Smith.
To David Hume, Esq.
St Andrew's Square.
[[31]]
Ultimately a Senator of the College of Justice, under the
title of Lord Reston.
[[32]]
Vide, Works, vol. vii pp. 35, 36, 329, seq., 407, seq.
