WRITINGS 01 DR, SMITH, It

more, that he feemedtobe habitually inattentive,in fo remarkable a degree, to what was pallingaround him,

I have been led into thefe remarks by the Dif-fertation on the Formation of Languages, whichexhibits a very beautiful fpecimen of theoreticalbiftory, applied to a fubjecft equally curious anddifficult. The analogy between the train of think-ing from which it has taken its rife, and that j whichhas fuggefted a variety of his other difquilitions,will, I hope, be a fufficient apology for the lengthof this digreffion; more particularly, as it willenable me to hmplify the account which I am togive afterwards, of his inquiries concerning politi-cal economy.

I lhall only obferve farther on this head, thatwhen different theoretical hiftories are propofed bydifferent writers, of the progrefs of the human mindin any one line of exertion , thefe theories are notalways to be underftood as Handing in oppofitionto each other. If the progrefs delineated in all ofthem be plauhble, it is poflible at leaft, that theymay all have been realized 5 for human affairs ne-ver exhibit, in any two inftanees, a perfect uni-formity. But whether they have been realized orno, is often a queftion of little confequence. Inmod cafes, it is of more importance to afcertainthe progrefs that is molt hmple, than the progrefsthat is mod agreeable to fact; for, paradoxical as