The fullest account we possess of the life of Adam Smith isstill the memoir which Dugald Stewart read to the Royal Society ofEdinburgh on two evenings of the winter of 1793, and which hesubsequently published as a separate work, with many additionalillustrative notes, in 1810. Later biographers have made few, if any,fresh contributions to the subject. But in the century that haselapsed since Stewart wrote, many particulars about Smith and a numberof his letters have incidentally and by very scattered channels foundtheir way into print. It will be allowed to be generally desirable, inview of the continued if not even increasing importance of Smith, toobtain as complete a view of his career and work as it is still in ourpower to recover; and it appeared not unlikely that some usefulcontribution to this end might result if all those particulars andletters to which I have alluded were collected together, and if theywere supplemented by such unpublished letters and information as itstill remained possible to procure. In this last part of my task Ihave been greatly assisted by the Senatus of the University ofGlasgow, who have most kindly supplied me with an extract of everypassage in the College records bearing on Smith; by the Council of theRoyal Society of Edinburgh, who have granted me every facility forusing the Hume Correspondence, [Pg vi]which is in their custody; and bythe Senatus of the University of Edinburgh for a similar courtesy withregard to the Carlyle Correspondence and the David Laing MSS. intheir library. I am also deeply indebted, for the use of unpublishedletters or for the supply of special information, to the Duke ofBuccleuch, the Marquis of Lansdowne, Professor R.O. Cunningham ofQueen's College, Belfast, Mr. Alfred Morrison of Fonthill, Mr. F.Barker of Brook Green, and Mr. W. Skinner, W.S., late Town Clerk ofEdinburgh.
early days at kirkcaldy
Birth and parentage, 1. Adam Smith senior, 1; his death and funeral,3. Smith's mother, 4. Burgh School of Kirkcaldy, 5. Schoolmaster'sdrama, 6. School-fellows, 6. Industries of Kirkcaldy, 7.
student at glasgow college
Professors and state of learning there, 9. Smith's taste formathematics, 10. Professor R. Simson, 10. Hutcheson, 11; his influenceover Smith, 13; his economic teaching, 14. Smith's early connectionwith Hume, 15. Snell exhibitioner, 16. College friends, 17.
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