When at Oxford, the heads of the college found him reading Hume's Treatise of Human Nature," and they seized the work, and reprimanded the youth.("Life," by M'Culloch.) On leaving Oxford he spent two years at Kirkcaldy, uncertain as to what he might do.In 1748 he removed to Edinburgh, where he delivered lectures on rhetoric and belles-lettres; the commencement, I believe, of that instruction in polite literature and English composition which has ever since been a distinguishing feature of the collegiate education in Scotland.In 1748 he was elected professor of logic, and in 1752 professor of moral philosophy, in the University of Glasgow.In the former, after an exposition, apparently brief (as we might expect from the spirit of the times), of the ancient logic, he devoted the rest of his time to rhetoric and belles-lettres.In the latter he divided his course into four parts: (1) Natural theology; (2) Ethics, unfolding the views he afterwards published in his " Theory of Moral Sentiments; " (3) Justice, that part of morality which can be expressed in precise rules; (4) Political science in which he delivered the thoughts and observations which were afterwards embodied in his great work, " The Wealth of Nations." In the later years of his Glasgow life, he expanded this last part more and more.An eminent pupil, Dr.Millar, afterwards professor of law in the university, describes him as a lecturer." In delivering his lectures, he trusted almost entirely to extemporary elocution.His manner, though not graceful, was plain and unaffected; and, as he seemed to be always interested in the subject, he never failed to interest his hearers.Each discourse consisted commonly of several distinct propositions, which he successively endeavored to prove and illustrate.These propositions, when announced in general terms, had, from their extent, not unfrequently something of the air of a paradox.In his attempts to explain them, he often appeared at first not to be sufficiently possessed of the subject, and spoke with some hesitation.As he advanced, however, the matter seemed to crowd upon him: his manner became warm and animated, and his expression easy and fluent.In points susceptible of controversy, you could easily discover that he secretly conceived an opposition to his opinions, and that he {165} was led upon this account to support them with greater energy and vehemence.By the fulness and variety of his illustrations, the subject gradually swelled in his hands, and acquired a dimension which, without a tedious repetition of the same views, was calculated to seize the attention of his audience, and to afford them pleasure, as well as instruction, in following the same object through all the diversity of shades and aspects in which it was presented, and afterwards in tracing it backwards to that original proposition or general truth from which this beautiful train of speculation had proceeded."The thirteen years he spent in this office, he looked back upon as the happiest in his life.He published, in 1759, his " Theory of Moral Sentiments," to which was appended an article on Johnson's Dictionary for the then "Edinburgh Review." While in Glasgow he collected a large body of the observations and facts which he afterwards embodied in his immortal work.He was stimulated and aided in these studies by his attending a weekly club founded by Provost Cochran, a Glasgow merchant, who furnished him with much valuable information on mercantile subjects.
In 1763 he gave up his chair in Glasgow, and, at the invitation of Mr.Charles Townsend, became travelling tutor to the young Duke of Buccleuch.One wonders, in these times, at so intellectual a man abandoning the influential position he held in Glasgow to become the teacher of a single youth, however eminent in station.But it was undoubtedly a great advantage to Smith that he was thus enabled to see more of mankind and of the world, and was brought into immediate contact with eminent men of kindred tastes and pursuits in France.Proceeding to France in the spring of 1764, he and his pupil spent eighteen months at Toulouse, and lived on terms of intimacy with some of the principal members of their parliament, and is supposed to have gathered there further materials for his great projected work.On leaving this place, he took an extensive tour in the south of France; spent two months at Geneva; and then went to Paris, and, having recommendations from Hume, he enjoyed the society of such men as Turgot, Quesnay, Morellet, Necker, D'Alembert, Heivetius, Marmontel, and Madame Riccoboni.He is supposed to have derived special benefit from his intercourse with Turgot and Quesnay, {166} who were engaged in political studies similar to his own.In October, to Great Britain, and spent the 1766, he returned next ten years with the mother whom he so much loved, in Kirkcaldy.
There are traditions of David Hume visiting him there from time to time, and of their holding earnest conversations on questions of political economy, and, it is supposed, of religion, as they walked on the sands of the Frith of Forth.
From this retreat issued, in 1776, his " Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations," -- the work which made political economy a science.
