SMITH, ADAM British economist, the son of Adam Smith, comptroller of the customs at Kirkcaldy (Fife shire), Scotland, and of Margaret Douglas, was born at Kirk caldy on June 5, 1723, some months after the death of his father. When three years old, he was carried off by a party of "tinkers," hut was soon rescued. Educated at Kirkcaldy under David Miller, he proceeded to the university of Glasgow in 1737, where he attended the lectures of Dr. Hutcheson; and in 1740 went to Bal liol College, Oxford, with a Snell exhibition. He remained there until 1746 devoting himself to moral and political science and to ancient and modern languages, and labouring to improve his English style by translation, particularly from the French. Re turning to Kirkcaldy, he resided there two years with his mother, continuing his studies, and in 1748 he removed to Edinburgh, where, under the patronage of Lord Kames, he gave lectures on rhetoric and belles-lettres. About this time began his acquaintance with David Hume, which afterwards ripened into friendship.
In 1751 he was elected professor of logic at Glasgow, and in 1752 he succeeded Thomas Craigie in the chair of moral phil osophy. This position he had for nearly twelve years. In 1759 Smith published his Theory of Moral Sentiments, embodying the second portion of his university course, to which was added in the 2nd edition an appendix with the title, "Considerations concerning the first Formation of Languages." After the publica tion of this work his ethical doctrines occupied less space in his lectures, and a larger development was given to the subjects of jurisprudence and political economy. Stewart gives us to under stand that he had, as early as 1752, adopted the liberal views of commercial policy which he afterwards preached; and this view is supported by the fact that such views were propounded in that year in the Political Discourses of Hume.
In 1762 the senatus academicus of Glasgow conferred on him the honorary degree of doctor of laws, but in 1763 on becoming tutor to the young duke of Buccleuch, he resigned his professor ship, and went abroad with his pupil in February 1764. After
spending eighteen months at Toulouse, they toured the south of France and visited Geneva, returning to Paris about Christmas of 1765. Smith frequented the society of Quesnay, Turgot, d'Alembert, Morellet, Helvetius, Marmontel and the duc de la Rochefoucauld, and was influenced by his contact with the mem bers of the physiocratic school. Smith afterwards described Ques nay as a man "of the greatest modesty and simplicity," and declared his system of political economy to be, "with all its im perfections, the nearest approximation to truth that had yet been published on the principles of that science." Returning home in October 1766, Smith spent the next ten years at Kirkcaldy.
He was occupied on his great work, Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776), which there is some reason for believing he had begun at Toulouse. After its publica tion, and only a few months before his own death, Hume wrote to congratulate his friend—"Euge! belle! dear Mr. Smith, I am much pleased with your performance, and the perusal of it has taken me from a state of great aqxiety. It was a work of so much expectation, by yourself, by your friends, and by the public, that I trembled for its appearance, but am now much relieved. Not but that the reading of it necessarily requires so much attention, and the public is disposed to give so little, that I shall still doubt for some time of its being at first very popular, but it has depth, and solidity, and acuteness, and is so much illustrated by curious facts that it must at last attract the public attention." Smith at tended Hume during a part of his last illness, and soon after the death of the philosopher there was published, along with his auto biography, a letter from Smith to W. Strahan (Smith's publisher) in which he gave an account of the closing scenes of his friend's life and expressed warm admiration for his character.