WRITINGS OF DR. SMITH. XCVII

a n article which fufficiently fliow's how com-pletely his mind was emancipated from the oldprejudices in favor of commercial regulations:But that even then, thefe opinions were confinedto a few fpeculative men in France , appears froma palfage in the Memoir es fur la Vie &r les Ouvra-ges de M. Turgot; in which, afterafhort quo-tation from the article juft mentioned, the authoradds: “ Thefe ideas were then confidered as pa-“ radoxical; they are fince become common, and“ they will one day be adopted univerfally.”

The Political Difcourfes of Mr. Hume were evi-dently of greater ufe to Mr. Smith , than anyother book that had appeared prior to his lec-tures. Even Mr. Hume’s theories, however, thoughalways plaufible and ingenious, and in moft inftan-ces profound and juft, involve fome fundamentalmiftakes; and, when compared with Mr. Smith’s,afford a ftriking proof, that, in confidering a fub-jecl fo extenfive and fo complicated, the moft pe-netrating fagacity, if directed only to particularqueftions, is apt to be led aftray by firft appearan-ces; and that nothing can guard us effectuallyagainft error, but a comprehenftve furvey of thewhole field of difeuffion, affifted by an accurateand patient analyfis of the ideas about which ourreafonings are employed.—It may be worth whileto add , that Mr. Hume’s Effay “ on the Jealoufyof Trade, ” with fome other of his Political

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