WRITINGS OF DR. SMI T II.

XCVII

an article which fufficiently .(hows how com-pletely his mind was emancipated from the oldprejudices in favor of commercial regulations :But that even then, thefe opinions were confinedto a fewfpeculativemen in France , appears froma paffàge in the Mémoires fur la Vie et les Ouvra-ges de M. Turgot; in which, after a fhort quo-tation from the article juft mentioned, the authoradds : “ Thefe ideas were then considered as pa-“ radoxical ; they are hnce become common, and“ they will one day be adopted univerfally. ”The Political Discourses ofMr. Hume were evi-dently of greater ufe to Mr. Smith , than anyother book that had appeared prior to his lec-tures. Even M. Hume’s theories, however, though,always plaufible and ingenious, andin moll instan-ces profound and juft , involve some fundamentalmiltakes ; and, when compared with Mr. Smith’s,afford a ftriking proof, that, in considering a fuh-je£t so extensive and fo complicated, the moft pe-netrating sagacity, if diredted only to particularqueftions, is apt to be led affray by firft appearan-ces ; and that nothing can guard us effebluallyagainft error, but a comprehensive survey of thewhole field of discussion , alfifted by an accurateand patient analysis of the ideas abouth which ourreasonings are amployed. —It may be worth whileto add , that Mr. Hume’s Mais “ on the Jeaioufyof Trade, ” with some other of his Political