SMITH, Adam, Scottish economist and philosopher : b. Kirkcaldy, Fifeshire, 5 June 1723; d. Edinburgh, 17 July 1790. He studied at the University of Glasgow, where he re mained until 1740, when he went to Balliol Col lege, Oxford. Quitting Oxford, and all views to the Church, which had led him there, in 1748 he settled at Edinburgh, and delivered some courses of lectures on rhetoric and polite litera ture. In 1751 he was elected professor of logic at Glasgow, and the year following of moral philosophy at the same, university. Both in mat ter and manner his lectures were of the highest merit. Those on moral philosophy contained the rudiments of two of his most celebrated publications, of which the first, the 'Theory of Moral Sentiments,' appeared in 1759, and was most favorably received. His theory makes sympathy the foundation of all our moral senti ments. To this work he afterward added an 'Essay on the Origin of Languages' • and the elegance and acuteness displayed in these trea tises introduced him to the notice of several emi nent persons, and he was engaged in 1764 to at tend the duke of Buccleuch in his travels. A long residence in France with this nobleman intro duced him to the acquaintance of Turgot, Quesnay, Necker, D'Alembert, Helvetius and Marmontel, to several of whom he was recom mended by David Hume. He returned to Scot land in 1766, and at Kirkcaldy led a life of strict study and retirement for 10 years, the fruit of which was his celebrated 'Inquiry into Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations' (1776). This work has become a standard classic and may be deemed the formal precursor of the modern sciences of political economy. (See POLITICAL ECONOMICS). It owed something to
French thinkers, but arranged the ideas derived from them in an original fashion. Its basic contention is that national progress is best secured by freedom of private initiative within the bounds of justice. Subsequently he was made commissioner of customs for Scotland, and in 1787 was chosen rector of the Univer sity of Glasgow. A short time before his death he ordered all his manuscripts to be burned, except a few detached essays. Numerous edi tions both of the 'Moral Sentiments' and the 'Wealth of Nations' have been published. Of the former the sixth edition contained consider able additions and corrections. This work was translated into French by the Marquis de Con dorcet. A volume of additions and corrections to the first two editions of the of Nations' appeared in 1784, and was included in the third edition, published the same year. The best of the later editions of this standard work are those published under the editorship of Macculloch (with life notes and supplementary dissertations 1828; often reissued), Thorold Rogers (1870), J. S. Nicholson (1884), and Bel fort Bax (1887). The 'Wealth of Nations' has been translated into several European lan guages —into French by Germain Gamier (1802; new ed., 1860) ; into German by Garve (1794-96), and by Asher (Stuttgart 1861). (See WEALTH OF NATIONS, THE). Consult Stewart, 'Life of Adam Smith> (4th ed., 1843); Mackintosh, 'Progress of Ethical Philosophy' (in Vol. I of his (Misc. Works,' 1854); Rae, 'Life of Adam Smith' (1895) ; Graham, 'Scottish Men of Letters in the 18th Century' (1901).