WRITINGS OF D R. SMITH. CXI
In a letter addreffed, in the year 1787, to thePrincipal of the Univerfity of Glafgow, in confe-quence of being eleded Redor of that learnedbody, a pleaftng memorial remains of the fatis-fadion with which he always recolleded that pe-riod of his literary career, which had been morepeculiarly confecrated to thefe important ftudies.“ No preferment (fays he) could have given me“ fo much real fatisfadion. No man can owe“ greater obligations to a fociety than I do to the“ Univerlity of Glafgow. They educated me;“ they fent me to Oxford. Soon after my return“ to Scotland , they eleded me one of their own“ members; and afterwards preferred me to an-“ other office to which the abilities and virtues of“ the never to be forgotten Dr. Hutcheson hadu given afuperior degree ofilluftration. The period“ of thirteen years which I fpent as a member of
thin folio paper book in my back room. All the other loofepapers which you will find in that desk, or within the glafsfolding doors of a bureau which Hands in my bed-room, toge-ther with about eighteen thin paper folio books, which you willlikewife find within the fame glafs folding doors, I defire maybe deftroyed without any examination. Unlefs I die very fud-denly, I shall take care that the papers I carry with me shallbe carefully fent to you.
I ever am, my dear Friend, moil faithfully your’s,
St. Andrew’s Square.