IV

ACCOUNT OF THE LIFE AND

habits which remained, with him through life, offpeaking to himfelf when alone, and of abfence incompany.

From the grammar-fchool of Kirkaldy , he wasfent, in 1737, to the Univerlity ofGlafgow, wherehe remained till 17405 when he went to BalliolCollege, Oxford, as an exhibitioner on Snell’sfoundation.

Dr. Maclaine of the Hague , who was a fellow-ftndent of Mr. Smith’s at Glafgow, told me fomeyears ago , that his favorite purfuits while at thatUniverlity were Mathematics and Natural Philo-fophy; and I remember to have heard my fatherremind him of a geometrical problem of conlider-able difficulty, about which he was occupied atthe time -Mien their acquaintance commenced,and which had been propofed to him as an exer-cife, by the celebrated Dr. Simpson.

Thefe, however, were certainly not the fciencesin which he was formed to excel; nor did theylong divert him from purfuits more congenial tohis mind. What Lord Bacon fays of Plato maybe juftly applied to him: 44 Ilium , licet ad rem-44 publicam non accelfilfet, tamennatura 8c incli-44 natione omnino ad res civiles propenfum, vires44 eo pracipue intendiffe; neque de Philofophia44 Naturali admodum follicitum elfe; nifi quate-44 nus ad Philofophi nomen 8c celebritatem tuen-44 dam, 8c ad majellatem quandam moralibus 8c