WRITINGS O F D R. SMITH. XLIX

the erudition of fcholiafts and of antiquaries, wefrequently find him borrowing his lights from themoll remote and unconnected quarters of the globe,and combining the cafual obfervations of illi-terate travellers and navigators, into a philofophi-cal commentary onthehillory of law and of man-ners.

The advances made in this line of inquiry finceMontesquieu ’s time have been great. Lord Kames , in his Hillorical Law Tracts, has givenfome excellent fpecimens of it, particularly in hisEffays on the Hiflory of Property and of Criminal Law , and many ingenious fpeculations of the famekind occur in the works of Mr. Millar.

In Mr. Smith's writings, whatever be the na-ture of his fubject, he feldom milfes an opportu-nity of indulging his curiofity, in tracing from theprinciples of human nature, or from the circum-flances of lociety, the origin of the opinions andthe inftitntions which he defcribes. I formerly men-tioned a fragment concerning the Hiflory of Aflro-nomy which he has left for publication; and I haveheard him fay more than once, that he had pro-jected, in the earlier part of his life, a hiflory oftheother fciences on the fame plan. In his Wealth ofNations, various difquilitions are introduced whichhave a like objeilin view, particularly the theore-tical delineation he has given of the natural progrefsof opulence in a country; and his invelligatioii

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