by supposing the spectator to be an impartial one it is needless to remark that this supposition does avail for escape from the difficulty. The dilemn exhaustive. Every system of morals must eithe hedonistic (that is, based upon the pleasurable imp of the particular individual), or else depend on principle to which validity is ascribed apart from particular experiences of the person who forms a r judgment based on it. It is just because Smith doe face this dilemma, and accept one or other of the alt tives, that his system has become of little or no ac as a contribution to philosophy.

The third important subject dealt with in the bo the foundation of our judgments concerning our sentiments and conduct, and of the sense of duty. embraces the theory of conscience. Man de according to Adam Smith, not only to be loved, b be lovely. The love and admiration which we nat conceive for those whose character and conduc approve of, necessarily dispose us to desire to be ourselves the objects of the like agreeable sentim and to be as amiable and as admirable as those w we admire the most. The most sincere praise can but little pleasure when it cannot be considered as sort of proof of praiseworthiness. Nature has end us, not only with a desire of being approved of with a desire of being what ought to be approved of being what we ourselves approve in other men. explains how it is that profligate criminals have frequ but little sense of the baseness of their own conduct

gibbet as a mere piece of bad luck which has befallen them. Such men conquer the fear of death easily because of this. The innocent man, on the other hand, over and above the uneasiness which the nature of death may cause him, is tormented by his own indignation at the injustice which has been done him, when he is wrongly condemned. Pain, as Smith is never

tired of reminding us, is, in almost all cases, a more pungent sensation than the opposite and correspondent pleasure. The one depresses us much more below the natural state of our happiness than the other raises us above it. Hence the wise man will often feel severely the injustice of unmerited censure, while he will reject with contempt unmerited applause. Such is the origin and nature of conscience. Some of the most profound and weighty observations in all the writings of the author of the theory are to be found in the chapters which deal with it.

The remaining great topic of the "Theory of Moral Sentiments" is the character of virtue. The man who acts according to the rules of perfect prudence, of strict justice, and of proper benevolence, may be said to be perfectly virtuous, although the most perfect knowledge of the rules of conduct, if it is not supported by the most perfect self-command, will not always enable him to do his duty. These propositions initiate an investigation too detailed to be sketched in these pages, even in outline, but well worth a careful perusal. Smith is never so good as when he is writing in the strain adopted here. There is no affectation, no insincerity about him. Nor

was a wise, just man, or at least one who knew well what wisdom and justice meant. And his style in treating of these things is excellent. He is never heavy, even when he is as diffuse as often happens with him. It has already been remarked that had he devoted his powers as a moralist to essay writing, instead of to the composition of a systematic treatise, he might have attained high distinction among British men of letters. But it was not to be so, and the blame lies with the author if the public have persistently declined to look for one kind of merit in regions where the only promise held out to them is that of something quite different.

It will be convenient to take this opportunity of adverting to the literary productions of the author of the Theory of Moral Sentiments," other than the "Wealth of Nations." Besides these two works, there are extant several essays of considerable length written by Smith at various periods in his career. One of these, the "Considerations concerning the First Formation of Languages," while of no general interest, exhibits the subtlety of Smith's imagination in its illustrations of the proposition that language becomes more simple in its rudiments and principles, just in proportion as it grows more complex in its composition. The author likens the gradual improvement of language to the gradual improvement of machinery, in that, instead of a particular principle being applied for the production of each single movement, a single principle is in an increasing degree so applied as to produce more than one movement. But he lays stress on the qualification of the analogy by the circumstance that, in the case of languages, the simpli

fications, instead of rendering the means more perfect for the fulfilment of its end, really renders it less perfect.

The essay on the "Principles which lead and direct Philosophical Enquiries as illustrated by the History of Astronomy," was left by its author in an incomplete condition. What is finished of it relates mainly to method, and to the tendencies of the mind in observation. The essays on the "Principles which lead and direct Philosophical Enquiries, illustrated by the History of the Ancient Physics," and by the "History of the Ancient Logic and Metaphysics" respectively, are of little general interest. The first mentioned of these three essays is divided into four chapters; the first dealing with the "Effects of Unexpectedness or Surprise"; the second investigating "Wonder, or the Effects of Novelty"; the third relating to the "Origin of Philosophy"; and the fourth treating of the "History of Astronomy."

There is also an essay on the "Nature of that Imitation which takes place in what are called the Imitative Arts." There is much matter here of a kind which recalls the style of the "Theory of Moral Sentiments." But as a whole, the essay is decidedly below the level of Smith's general writing. There is a characteristic comment by the bosom friend of Hume upon Hume's most aggressive enemy (Rousseau): "Painting,' says an author more capable of feeling strongly than of analysing accurately, Painting, which presents its imitations not to the imagination, but to the senses, can represent nothing besides the objects of sight."" Smith goes on to contrast music with painting, and both music and painting

The brief treatise on the external senses is of no philosophical value. When Adam Smith says in it that the four qualities, or attributes, of extension, divisibility, figure, and mobility, or the capacity of motion or rest, seem necessarily involved in the idea or conception of a solid substance, one feels instinctively that he had never taken kindly either to his Berkeley or to his Hume. There is in this essay, among other things, a repetition of the even then somewhat hackneyed psychological tale of Cheselden's observations upon the growth of vision in the young gentleman whom he couched for cataract.

The only other production by Smith which remains to us, is a brief fragment upon the affinity between certain English and Italian Verses. What was in the mind of the author of the treatises, some complete, and some fragmentary upon all these subjects, is not difficult to divine. He probably contemplated a series of great works upon the various phases of intellectual life which were embraced in his course of lectures at Glasgow University. What he completed embraced the theories of Ethics and of Political Economy. What he failed to complete would have covered the field of those general subjects which lay between these theories, including a systematic view of the science of Jurisprudence.