Lomonaco - Smiths Letter To Edinburgh Review

Adam Smith's "Letter to the Authors of the Edinburgh Review"
Author(s): Jeffrey Lomonaco

Source: Journal of the History of Ideas, Vol. 63, No. 4 (Oct., 2002), pp. 659-676
Published by: University of Pennsylvania Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3654165
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Adam Smith's
"Letter to the Authors
of the Edinburgh Review"
Jeffrey Lomonaco
One of Adam Smith's first publications was a letter addressed to the edi-
tors of the Edinburgh Review, printed anonymously in the second issue of the
semiannual periodical in 1756.1 The compact text entitled "A LETTER to the
Authors of the Edinburgh Review," which has received surprisingly little schol-
arly attention, offers valuable insight into Smith's work and career, and not
merely because it confirms that Smith was an unusually widely-read man of
letters long before he was the retrospectively anointed founder of the discipline
of economics, though it does that. Indeed, the thirty-two-year-old writer pre-
sumes to pass judgment on the writing and learning of Europe as a whole and
specifically assesses the only recently published work of Rousseau, the
Encyclopedie project still in progress, and the work of R6aumur, Buffon and
Daubenton, Descartes, Newton, and others. In this text (whose authorship was
known well before Dugald Stewart noted it in his biographical account in the
early 1790s) Smith delineates a space of learning that is at once Scottish, Brit-
ish, and European, mapping out a set of relations of complex rivalry between
France, England, and Scotland in order to articulate and advocate a cosmopoli-
tan patriotism.2 He suggests that while England occupied the preeminent posi-
tion in learning in the past, France does so in the present, and Scotland is in a
position to do so in the near future, if it is properly incited. Smith's careful
1 "A LETTER to the Authors of the Edinburgh Review," The Edinburgh Review, From July
1755 to January 1756 (Edinburgh, 1756), 63-79. Citations from Adam Smith, Essays on Philo-
sophical Subjects, ed. W. P. D. Wightman (Indianapolis, 1982).
2 See J.C. Bryce, introduction to Smith, "Letter," in Essays on Philosophical Subjects, 230;
Dugald Stewart, "Account of the Life and Writings of Adam Smith, LL.D.," also in Essays on
Philosophical Subjects, 276; also John Robertson, "The Scottish Enlightenment," Rivista Storica
Italiana, 108 (1996), 792-829, and "The Enlightenment Above National Context: Political
Economy in Eighteenth-Century Scotland and Naples," Historical Journal, 40 (1997), 667-97.
659
Copyright 2002 by Journal of the History of Ideas, Inc.
660 Jeffrey Lomonaco
rhetorical incitement of his Scottish

future primacy in learning also reve
to realize them.
My reading of the text will throw

how, although Smith does not name
expresses his own allegiances to the
Scotland to achieve primacy in the w
most important task facing the wo
own--concerns the proper systemat
knowledge. That Smith's is a subtle w
tention to the grain of the text is itse
especially since the rhetorical care S
derestimated, or at least not adequat
Judging Rivals
The Edinburgh Review was a projec

Select Society, one of those social ve
that flourished throughout Europe in t
ing member of the Select Society in
tors of the periodical, to the inaugu
review of Johnson's Dictionary.5 Th
view, probably written by the editor
Smith's, positioned the Review as Sc
the widespread European print enter
to the attention of the public.6 The
preface declared, was to demonstrat
country" and thereby to incite Scots
3 But see Charles L. Griswold, Jr., Adam S

bridge, 1999).
4 See Roger L. Emerson, "The Social Composition of Enlightened Scotland: The Select
Society of Edinburgh, 1754-1764," SVEC 1, 14 (1973), 291-329; David D. McElroy, Scotland's
Age of Improvement: A Survey of Eighteenth-Century Literary Clubs (Pullman, Wa., 1969), 48-
70; Alastair Smart, Allan Ramsay: Paintel, Essayist and Man of the Enlightenment (New Haven,
1992), 110-114; also The Autobiography of Dr Alexander Carlyle of Inveresk, 1722-1805, ed.
John Hill Burton (1910; [1990]).
5 "A Dictionary of the English Language, by Samuel Johnson, A.M. Knapton 2 Vols. Folio,
L. 4, 15 s.," The Edinburgh Review 1, Appendix, Article III; reprinted in Essays on Philosophi-
cal Subjects, 232-41.
6 "Preface," Edinburgh Review 1, i. Wedderburn is identified as the author of the preface by
James Mackintosh in his "Preface to a Reprint of The Edinburgh Review of 1755," published in
the eighteen teens; The Miscellaneous Works ofthe Right Honourable Sir James Mackintosh, ed.
R.J. Mackintosh (3 vols., New York, 1868), 242-45; for some evidence of Smith and Wedderburn's
friendship at this point, see Alexander Wedderburn to Smith, Correspondence ofAdam Smith,
ed. E.C. Mossner and I.S. Ross (Oxford, 1987), 11-13.
Adam Smith 's "Letter" 661
distinguish themselves, and to do honour to the
issue of the Review was going "to give a full a
Scotland within the compass of half a year; a
books published elsewhere, as are most read in
any title to draw the public attention."8 The ti
appeared on 26 August 1755 and which covere
January and 1 July 1755, stated that it would
counts of "Books published in ENGLAND and o
only English books were noted in that issue's a
apart from Smith's own contribution.9
The undeclared but no less evident purpose o
more partisan answer to the question of how Sc
in the world of letters, namely, by pursuing t
provement shared by the Moderates, who edi
grouped around William Robertson, stood opp
to the so-called Popular party.' The Review was
siderable strife between the two groups, and t
ate harsh criticism from the Moderates' oppon
to David Hume and Henry Home (by then Lor
marily on account of the ecclesiastical and pu
were embroiled in, and for the sake of their t
stopped after only the second issue, which ap
ered July 1755 to January 1756."
The abrupt cessation of publication lends some r
"Letter to the Authors of the Edinburgh Rev
issue on a prospective note, offering a recom
might in the future better pursue the aim he sha
as he puts it, "all proper encouragement to such e
to make towards acquiring a reputation in th
crete suggestion is that the Review, instead of
Scotland along with some English works from
review worthwhile publications in Scotland an
pass all of Europe, which for Smith means pri
7 "Preface," Edinburgh Review, i, iii.

8 "Preface," Edinburgh Review, i, iii.
9 See J.C. Bryce's introduction to Smith's contributions in Essays on Philosophical Sub-

jects, 229; Ian Simpson Ross, The Life ofAdam Smith (Oxford, 1995), 143.
10 For this group, see Richard B. Sher, Church and University in the Scottish Enlighten-
ment: The Moderate Literati of Edinburgh (Edinburgh, 1985), 68-69.
" See Ernest Mossner, The Life ofDavid Hume (Oxford, 1980,2), ch. 25; Sher, Church and
University, 65-74; Ross, Life of Adam Smith, 143-45; and Alexander Fraser Tytler, Lord
Woodhouselee, Memoirs of the life and writings of the Honourable Henry Home of Kames
(3 vols., Edinburgh, 1814).
12 "Letter," 242-43.
Even the opening two paragraphs o

objectives and announce Smith's cosm
fact that Scotland, "just beginning t
produces as yet so few works of repu
appear. They contain a subtle contrib
the Moderates: Smith, writing as an
readers," provides cover for the Rev
unabashedly partisan.13 Smith's coun
tice ... of every Scotch production t
characterized by a "singular absurdi
ductory note promised to follow-wo
the sorts of publications it had denigra
of the opponents of the Moderates b
But Smith also had a larger, more
the "Letter," and from the third parag
he recommends the Review do in the f
of learning throughout Europe. Smith'
his readers that looking to all of Europ
"Nor will this task be so very laborious
Smith assures his addressees. "For th
almost every part of Europe, it is in
vated with such success or reputatio
tions."'" In the space of one paragra
learning, more or less dismissing the
many, and perhaps Russia. Although
keep its readers abreast of "the mos
tions" of all the academies of Europe, S
and Britain, as only there have indiv
The rest of the text is a detailed lo
is structured by two general postul
paragraph. First, Smith sets up Fra
offers a character of each rival's spe
pass judgment on specific writers i
may pass any general judgment concer
rivals in learning, trade, governmen
nius and invention, seem to be the ta
priety and order, of the French.""' W
13 "Letter," 242; Cf. M.A. Stewart, "Introd
Enlightenment, ed. Stewart (Oxford, 1990),
14 "Letter," 242. Wedderburn's note is rep
15 "Letter," 243.
16 "Letter," 249, 243.
17 "Letter," 243.
about the rise and progress of the arts and scie
trast between taste and genius, between the ca
tion and the capacity for astonishing inventive
extended eighteenth-century, Addisonian disc
imagination. As for the rivalry he establishes
spread anti-French sentiment, which played so
British identity in the eighteenth century. But th
tant anti-Catholicism; rather, while Smith cou
the cruder forms of anti-French sentiment, the t
sentiments of envy and hatred and evoking, at
more admiring form of rivalry at the nexus
tism.,8
Smith is explicit later in the "Letter" that it is rivals and judges who pro-
duce excellence in learning. Acknowledging the exceptional contribution of
two Englishmen to natural philosophy, which by and large has fallen into ne-
glect in England, Smith explains that they would have contributed more "if in
their own country they had had more rivals and judges."19 As Smith would
claim explicitly in The Theory of Moral Sentiments and the Wealth ofNations,
the mechanism of rivalry is emulation, and together they engender the exer-
tions that may lead to excellence.20 What the Wealth of Nations would say
about rivalry between individuals-"Rivalship and emulation render excellency,
even in mean professions, an object of ambition, and frequently occasion the
very greatest exertions"-also held for "national emulation."21 And if natural
philosophy has suffered in England because of the absence of rivals and judges,
Smith is both acting as a judge within Scotland and himself taking representa-
tive French thinkers as rivals to be judged, emulated, and outdone. Having set
up France and England as rivals, one of the main strategies of Smith's "Letter"
is to encourage such a dynamic of rivalry and emulation in the domain of learn-
ing, depicting the French as rivals and himself engaging in such rivalry in indi-
vidual cases.
18 See Linda Colley, Britons: Forging the Nation 1707-1837 (New Haven, 1992); but cf.
Peter Miller, Defining the Common Good: Empire, Religion and Philosophy in Eighteenth-Cen-
tury Britain (Cambridge, 1994), 167, and J. C. D. Clark, "Protestantism, Nationalism, and Na-
tional Identity, 1660-1832," Historical Journal, 43 (March 2000), 249-76.
19 "Letter," 246.
20 See Adam Smith, The Theory ofMoral Sentiments (1759-90), ed. D.D. Raphael and A.L.
Macfie (Indianapolis, 1982), 229-30, a passage first published in the much-revised sixth, 1790
edition of the work, and which provides a kind of precis of Hume's essay "Of the Jealousy of
Trade," published in 1758 in (some copies) of Essays and Treatises on Several Subjects. Smith's
earlier reflections on international rivalry, emulation and national excellence were also probably
spurred by Hume's thoughts expressed in his essays on the arts and sciences and on commerce
and trade between nations.
21 Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776), ed.
R.H. Campbell and A.S. Skinner (2 vols.; Indianapolis, Ind., 1981), 759-60; Smith, Theory of
Moral Sentiments, 229.
Smith briefly illustrates the contra

ents by comparing the "strength of
(Smith's examples are Shakespeare, S
egance in "the eminent French writ
discussion of natural philosophy, wh
times has been the most happily cul
this fact, the quantitative burden of
phy or natural knowledge. In the or
pages are devoted to a discussion of
encompassing natural history, prese
natural philosophy-while approxim
moral philosophy (in the broad sense
eighteenth century). Smith does also
excerpts, translated by himself, of
fondemens de l'inegalite parmi les ho
3 pages of general reflections at the
which briefly mention poetic writing
phy that Smith makes his most forcefu
between France and Britain, and mo
and, in a muted but important way,
discussion of moral philosophy is in fac
respect Smith was hardly the first eigh
of natural philosophy to think thro
philosophy.
In his discussion of natural philosophy, Smith asserts "the superiority of
the English philosophy" over the French, but this superiority is limited to the
past. The talent of the English for originality and genius has manifested itself
historically in their capability for making "great discoveries" and in the subse-
quent inability to maintain their preeminence by means of organization of their
inventions. By contrast, the French, with their distinctive talent for such orga-
nization, have succeeded the English historically. Where they lack the genius
to make great inventive discoveries, they come later "to arrange every subject
in that natural and simple order, which carries the attention, without any effort,
along with it."23
As he makes this claim, Smith enacts his own individual version of the
international rivalry he describes, contesting the claims of historical priority
made on behalf of the French by d'Alembert in the Encyclopedie. Wrapping up
his review of the "great men" of philosophy since "the renaissance of letters"
in the Discours prdliminaire, d'Alembert had said, "We may conclude from all
this history that England is indebted to us for the origins of that philosophy
22 "Letter," 243, 244, 244.

23 "Letter," 245, 244, 245.
Adam Smith ' "Letter" 665
which we have since received back from

the Encyclopedie until the middle of th
ment earlier with his discussion of Des
d'Alembert's text was discussing. D'Ale
greater distance from substantial form
ence to Descartes] than from vortices t
Smith contradicts by subtly modifying
Newton with a clever backhanded com
said of the Cartesian philosophy, now
that, in the simplicity, precision and p
sions, it had the same superiority ov
Newtonian philosophy has over it." W
disreputable Aristotelian system the Fr
to d'Alembert and the French, it has t
spect to the Newtonian. Smith goes on
sive [Cartesian] philosophy" to a combi
existing alternative and pride and preju
production of their own countryman,
real advancement of the science of na
that "If one judges impartially those v
lous, it will be agreed, I daresay, that a
ined."26
In the following paragraph of his "Letter," devoted entirely to the En-

cyclopedie, Smith says, "In the preliminary discourse, Mr. Alembert gives an
account of the connection of the different arts and sciences, their genealogy
and filiation; which, a few alterations and corrections excepted, is nearly the
same with that of my Lord Bacon." In this statement, Smith is merely repeating
d'Alembert's own acknowledgment of his lack of originality, but he gives it the
new point of contesting French claims to superiority.27 While Smith clearly
admires the Encyclopedie and gives it high praise for its systematic arrange-
ment and presentation of knowledge, the admiration is mixed with understated
combativeness, as Smith himself takes d'Alembert as a rival and encourages
his countrymen to take the project as a rival. Smith's explicit introduction of
the Encyclopedie epitomizes this blend of admiration and antagonism, making
clear that his characterization of its systematization of English natural philoso-
phy is anything but a simple tribute to the French, in a passage that is worth
citing at some length for its importance in the context of Smith's overall strat-
egy in the text:
24 Jean Le Rond d'Alembert, Preliminary Discourse to the Encyclopedia of Diderot, tr.
Richard N. Schwab (Indianapolis, Ind., 1963), 74, 76, 85.
25 D'Alembert, "Preliminary Discourse," 85.
26 "Letter," 244; d'Alembert, "Preliminary Discourse," 79.
27 "Letter," 246; d'Alembert, "Preliminary Discourse," 76.
[I]t is with pleasure that I observe in

ideas of Bacon, Boyle, and Newton,
cuity and good judgment, which dis
that nation. As, since the union, we
measure as the countrymen of those g
as a Briton, to observe the superior
acknowledged by their rival nation
time, to consider that posterity and
be made acquainted with the Englis
others, than by those of the English t
Smith is in effect doing what later in t

of future volumes of the Encyclopedi
testing "the justness of their criticisms
and of foreign nations."29 Smith vindic
claims of his and their French rival.
an overstatement meant as a gentle sati
of the British feeling of rivalry it c
readers, serves as a spur to competit
having taken the English's position o
having more successfully inherited
themselves, Smith is seeking to evok
feeling of inferiority that may be st
However, he is not appealing to the
and he introduces here an important in
introducing a Scottish dimension int
poraries as Scots who are also Brit
measure" with English learning, inc
duced in England before the creation
doing so, Smith positions contempor
merely as an observer of the rivalry
and associated himself and his countr
he is addressing Scots as Britons who
the name of Scottish-British pride.
In fact, the rest of the long paragrap
performs the complementary ploy of
to make space for the exclusive rival
while also hinting that the Scots are
present, or more precisely in the fu
28 "Letter," 245.
29 "Letter," 248.
Adam Smith 's "Letter " 667
negligible contribution to natural philosophy, the v
exploration, since they lack the talent for what S
ous but not less useful labour of arranging and m
and of expressing them in the most simple and
according to Smith, is that "there is not only n
philosophy in the English language, but there is
of any part of it."30 Though Smith does acknowledg
living Englishmen in the Newtonian lineage, Rob
the conclusion as to the present state of learning
the present age, despairing perhaps to surpass th
renown of their forefathers, have disdained to h
ence in which they could not arrive at the first, an
study of it altogether."3'
At the same time, Smith reinforces the Scots' s
of the greatness of English-cum-British natural
Scots' own contribution to the British cause. He r
Gregory as "Keil and Gregory, two Scotsmen" in
"the best things that have been written in this way
ain"--even though Gregory died in 1708, only o
Great Britain.32 By referring to the pair as "two
Great Britain and by praising them for exhibitin
talent for the "order and disposition" of a work, Sm
the English and suggests that, because they do n
from the deficit in system-building that is the c
they are the preeminent representatives of British
Smith briefly turns to and offers judgment an
history. Since such works are so dependent on ca
ticularly excel in them. An important point that
ments of Buffon and Daubenton and of Reaumu
spread conviction that the value of modern kno
experiments and observations.33 Smith rounds ou
tory and philosophy by reminding the Review of h
has examined should be criticized and introduced
works worth including fall into two categories:
seem to add something to the public stock of ob
which collect more completely, or arrange in a b
that have already been made."34
30 "Letter," 245.
31 "Letter," 246."
32 "Letter," 245.
33 "Letter," 248-49.
34 "Letter," 249.
With this, Smith has established th

spective. Smith's advice that the Rev
continent is not counsel simply to keep
provide the Scots with a rival to admir
at times reserved or antagonistic pre
learning in France. By deliberately in
strategy he prescribes for Scotland
identifying himself, his own aspirat
dure for fulfilling them. He is ident
mitted to learning and to philosophy
especially to France to advance his o
French have already achieved, but in
being judged by. While Smith is not af
of his remarks on Britain, and his cl
ing is to be found in France and Sco
land the leading locus of that British i
Scots, and even in scotticizing Euro
Observing Moral Philosoph
Having established this structure

Smith turns very briefly to moral p
discussion of it he further specifies hi
the world of letters as he implies th
moral philosophy that Scotland is po
of learning. In its basic outlines Sm
edge is meant to parallel his discuss
another domain his "general judgmen
England-Britain, but it is also reveal
Here is Smith's discussion of mora
The original and inventive genius o

ered itself in natural philosophy, b
of the abstract sciences. Whatever
em times towards improvement in
philosophy, beyond what the antie
England. The Meditations of Des C
French that aims at being original
phy of Mr. Regis, as well as that of F
ments upon the Meditations of Des
35 "Letter," 249.
Adam Smith s "Letter" 669
and Dr. Mandevil, Lord Shaftsbury, Dr. Bu
Hutcheson, have all of them, according to t
tent systems, endeavoured at least to be, i
and to add something to that stock of obs
world had been furnished before them. Th
philosophy, which seems now to be intirely
themselves, has of late been transported i
traces of it, not only in the Encyclopedia, b
able sentiments by Mr. De Pouilly, a work
original; and above all, in the late Discourse
dations of the inequality amongst mankind by
Smith again points to the historical original

assert the superiority of the English over the
philosophy, the present situation is differen
preeminence while the English have disappea
The French are rivals for the Scots to judge,
Smith's claim that, whereas "in modern tim
science which ... has been the most happily c
has been "contentious and unprosperous" sug
improvement is most needed-and most possib
this discussion of moral philosophy and the e
gives an important clue to how Smith is prop
Whereas he refers simply to the "Newtonian
the English in natural philosophy, he gives a
who have made England the site of innovati
mentators have noted, this list very closely r
in the introduction to A Treatise of Human N
in England, who have begun to put the scienc
a footnote, Hume enumerates "Mr. Locke, my
Mr. Hutchinson, Dr. Butler, &c." Smith inclu
and adds Hobbes and Clarke. Like Smith, Hu
England to be the unrivalled and unexcelled
ments in reason and philosophy" (though his
what different from Smith's).39
36 "Letter," 249-50.
37 "Letter," 244, 249.
38 David Hume, A Treatise ofHuman Nature (1739-17
J. Norton (Oxford, 2000), 5; Raphael and Macfie, intro
11.
39 Hume, Treatise, 5 n. 1, 5.
Given the similarity of their lists a

cal preeminence, it might seem puzzl
"Letter" does Smith name Hume. Hum
the disapproving rhetorical question,
exclusion of Hume from his list of p
peating Hume's list, Smith is invoki
and Hume's own science of man as th
phy to take in order for Scotland to fi
along with Hutcheson, an Irishman w
Scotland, where he was Smith's teach
ture greatness in moral philosophy, s
philosophy. But Hume's science of m
learning should take for Scottish mo
In other words, where in natural phil
the Newtonian road of experiment an
in moral philosophy Smith is signal
French as rivals, the experimental path
one. It is of course not news that Sm
his good friend Hume, but it seems t
allegiance to the Humean science of
Smith himself conceived and organi
his career, as he was composing The
has escaped or been misunderstood b
Smith is gesturing to Hume by re
Hume himself presented as the precu
seems to me the strongest evidence,
ations lend support to my claim. Smi
"English" philosophers echoes Hume
thing to that stock of observations,"
ment and observation were the basis
of man experiments cannot be made
experiments in this science from a caut
characterization of the English philo
sistent" similarly echoes Hume's ble
tion of how things were going withi
more explicitly a couple of comment
In his own "Abstract" of the Treatise
the spring of 1740, Hume had written
40 Ernest Mossner, The Life of David Hum

41 See, for instance, Raphael and Macfie, i
42 "Letter," 250; Hume, Treatise, 4, 6.
43 "Letter," 250; Hume, Treatise, 3.
mentions, on this occasion, Mr Locke, my Lor

Mr. Hutchison, Dr. Butler, who, tho' they diffe
selves, seem all to agree in founding their accu
ture upon experience." " At the beginning of th
ciples of Morals, published in 1751, Hume had
reigned in these subjects, that an opposition of
prevail between one system and another, and ev
individual system; and yet nobody, till very late
Hume was referring to himself as the one who
this inconsistency, then Smith's repetition of th
is an even more direct gesture to Hume himself
There are also contextual considerations that
have been hesitant to name Hume explicitly and
might have invoked Hume in this way. To begin
repeated charge that the Edinburgh Review fail
provide a review of the first volume of Hume
one, since the book was published before the pe
issue of the Review, the founders of the publi
from emphasizing their association with the con
were all friends of Hume and co-members in t
the project emerged; but apparently they excl
but still controversial cousin, Henry Home, fro
vance knowledge of the Review's production, m
within the Church of Scotland in the midst of
cused in no small part on the two Humes.47
Even if Smith was not constrained by any ou
dent young scholar still in the early stages of h
advised not to publicize for all readers his asso
orthodox, much less his close adherence to the
prise.48 Indeed, it is doubtful that even many o
Moderates would have been comfortable with un
science of man. Smith had seen Hume denied a
ready, and it seems that Smith's own students h
44 Hume, "Abstract," printed in Treatise, 407.

45 Hume, An Enquiry concerning the Principles of M
(Oxford, 1998), 4.
46 See Mossner, The Life ofDavid Hume, 338, 288; and
Sher, Church and University, 69 n.76.
47 Mossner, Life of David Hume, 338, and chap. 25; She
48 See Richard Sher, "Professors of Virtue: The Socia
Philosophy Chair in the Eighteenth Century," Studies in t
enment, ed. M. A. Stewart (Oxford, 1990).
religious commitments as a teacher.4

Sentiments he would call "perhaps
express himself so as to be unders
while retaining what we now call "
We know that Smith exercised c
especially with regard to Hume. In
demic refusals of Hume, explainin
should prefer David Hume to any
public would not be of my opinion; a
to have some regard to the opinio
Smith was showing similar cautio
mous Dialogues concerning Natural
(It passed to Hume's nephew to pu
tenure as executor expire.) The pr
correspondence between Hume an
fairly constant topics of reflection w
1789 Smith was still making publ
'"quiet."54
In his discussion of moral philoso
have pioneered the way in modem
rience or observation, but that on
to be of interest, and Britain's gre
However, in moral perhaps even m
in a position to be the British riva
but there are signs of the potenti
leading lights, which in moral ph
project for a science of man. This sci
be taken in order to achieve preem
Smith and System
In following a Humean program

facing Scottish philosophy-and Sm
ranging and methodizing" moral k
49 See Roger L. Emerson, "The 'Affair
Politics of Hume's Attempts to Become a
Stewart and John P. Wright (University P
18.
50 Smith, Theory of Moral Sentiments, 248.

51 Smith to William Cullen, Correspondence, 5.
52 See Correspondence, 194-95, 196, 211, 212, 216.
5 See Correspondence, 20, 113, 132.
54 See the letter of 18 November 1789 from Smith to his publisher Thomas Cadell, pub-
lished in Heiner Klemme, "Adam Smith an Thomas Cadell: Zwei neue Briefe," Archiv fir
Geschichte der Philosophie, 73 (1991), 280.
Adam Smiths "Letter" 673
which carries the attention, without any effort, along
apparent in the way Smith contrasts the present situa
with that of natural knowledge. Recall, to begin with,
discussion of natural philosophy and history with a re
duces two different kinds of works as worthy of the atte
the country. The public will appreciate, Smith says, th
"such works, which either seem to add something to t
vations, if I may say so, or which collect more comp
better order the observations that have already been m
of works sort more or less neatly into products of the
genius and products of the typical French talent of ta
moral philosophy, however, Smith adduces only the f
work and omits mention of the latter. Smith suggests
English moral philosophers, though original, have lac
orderliness that the French have given to other parts
closely reiterates the phrase about the public stock o
section on natural philosophy, remarking that English
tried "to add something to that stock of observations
jects, thereby rendering the absence of works of sat
arrangement more glaring."7 The implication that wh
atic works "which collect more completely or arrang
observations that have already been made" is also rein
acterization of the English "systems" as "different a
themselves.58
Nor do the French supply this lack, regardless of t

Nowhere does Smith attribute the typical French tale
propriety and order" to contemporary French moral philo
he had earlier praised the Encyclopedie for this virtue
mention of it when he brings up the Encyclopedie in
Smith does say that Rousseau has "softened, impr
Mandeville's principles in his "system," this is by no
orderliness and arrangement. On the contrary, the bu
tion of Rousseau's book is to suggest that it "consists a
ric and description," which would seem to be the very
qualities Smith praises, since the work is thereby uns
Smith even goes so far as to praise the work of the
mentions, L6vesque de Pouilly (whose work, Smith's
55 "Letter," 245.
56 "Letter," 249, my emphases.
57 "Letter," 250.
58 "Letter," 249, 250.
59 "Letter," 243.
60 "Letter," 250, 251.
lated, may have been introduced to

virtue of being "in many respects orig
a properly presented system of mora
The implication is that while Smith
additions to the stock of moral obser
task is a matter of the organization,
of moral knowledge. In the "Letter"
not petty or derivative when he lam
glorious but not less useful labour of
ies, and of expressing them in the m
tions of presentation were essential,
for Smith.
Since Smith allows that the Scots,

with English originality, also displa
talent for order, it seems clear that th
trymen is the full and satisfying sy
with Humean principles. Hume may
approach and framework for putting m
Smith's view he may not have arrang
as to carry the attention of its addre
stood as aspiring to systematize and
ence of man.
However, to see Smith as offering nothing but Hume a lafrangaise would

be again to underestimate the importance for Smith of the presentation of a
body of thought for the very nature of that thought. Not only would adequate
systematization eliminate the differences and inconsistencies hobbling modem
moral philosophy, it would achieve a more satisfying relationship with the reader
and have a better chance of persuading that reader. Underlying Smith's empha-
sis on carrying the attention of readers with tasteful presentation and methodi-
cal arrangement of knowledge is his very Humean conviction that the hold a
work might gain on its addressees was fundamentally in the imagination. A
well-articulated system was best able to please readers' imaginations and carry
them along without effort, thereby persuading those readers as to the truth of
the work. The underlying picture of system, imagination, and persuasion was
elaborated by Smith elsewhere, in parts of The Theory ofMoral Sentiments and
especially in "The Principles which Lead and Direct Philosophical Enquiries;
Illustrated by the History of Astronomy," probably composed around the same
time as the "Letter."63 He effectively grounded this elaboration in a Humean
6' "Letter," 250; Ross, Life ofAdam Smith, 160.
62 "Letter," 245, my emphasis.
63 See esp. Smith, Theory of Moral Sentiments, 179-93, 194-200, 232-34; and "The Prin-
ciples which Lead and Direct Philosophical Enquiries; Illustrated by the History of Astronomy,"
in Essays on Philosophical Subjects.
Adam Smith s "Letter" 675
understanding of the pleasures and pain

on philosophical inquiries he also modif
and simultaneously settled accounts wi
the issue of skepticism. But it is in th
anonymously) expressed his own identi
of letters.
Not that, armed with the importance

work" for Smith, we can proceed to rea
the Wealth of Nations as systems.64 To
with accomplishment. For the matter o
no special authority; nor does what Sm
final authority for how we characterize w
But the fact that from early in his care
ment, propriety, order"-in short, syste
phy as he crafted his identity as a ma
understand what Smith was doing in hi
categories of "work" and "author" as ax
pretation.
Conclusion
In his "Letter" Smith exhorts his countrymen to take a more cosmopolitan

perspective on the world of learning, which means turning to France in order to
find an admirable rival to compete with in the name of Scottish-British patrio-
tism. Smith's understated-because controversial-claim is that this cosmo-
politan path should be an experimental, Humean one, although the science of
man or moral philosophy had to be modified for better presentation. The patri-
otic point of the text is confirmed near the end of the "Letter." As I mentioned,
Smith devotes substantial attention to what he calls "the late Discourse upon
the origin and foundation of the inequality amongst mankind by Mr. Rousseau
of Geneva," and there is much to be said about Smith's approach to Rousseau,
which, like his approach to d'Alembert but more overtly, takes him as an ad-
mired object of judgment and-in this case rather harsh--criticism.66 But for
the purposes of this essay, I want to focus on Smith's concluding remark on
Rousseau:
I shall only add, that the dedication to the republic of Geneva, of which
Mr. Rousseau has the honour of being a citizen, is an agreeable, ani-
64 "Letter," 246.
65 Cf. Quentin Skinner, "Motives, Intentions and the Interpretation of Texts," 76-77, and
"Some Problems in the Analysis of Political Thought and Action," 103, in James Tully (ed.),
Meaning and Context: Quentin Skinner and his Critics (Princeton, 1988).
66 "Letter," 250.
mated, and I believe too, a just pa

and passionate esteem which it bec
the government of his country and t
This passage can by no means be us

pathies.67 The first part of Smith's
some republican sentiment, is in fact a
opposite direction with the rest of
admiration for Geneva as but an ins
tions of a man of learning, which are
ment. In so doing, Smith is contradi
in the very first paragraph of his ded
your walls, I would have believed my
picture of human society to the on
greatest advantages and to have best
discussion of Rousseau in this manner,
of his own text as a whole, since it mo
properly devoted to the government a
For his own part, exemplifying w
lays out his own program in moral p
scene, he will serve his own countr
producing a modified Humean syste
tion to the combination of the "En
talent for systematic, tasteful prese
in his suggestion that the Scots are in
His own text displays the genius of
ing order to his survey of the field
carefully ordered, tasteful presenta
what might have been rough going f
allowing the rich grain of the text t
University of Minnesota.
67 See John Rae, Life of Adam Smith (N

Smith 's Politics (Cambridge, 1978), 41-43
cited there.
68 Jean-Jacques Rousseau, "Discourse on th
Men (1755)," in The Discourses and Other Ear
(Cambridge, 1997), 114.

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Adam Smith's "Letter to the Authors of the Edinburgh Review"

Author(s): Jeffrey Lomonaco

University of Pennsylvania Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and

of the Edinburgh Review"

Copyright 2002 by Journal of the History of Ideas, Inc.

rhetorical incitement of his Scottish

My reading of the text will throw

The Edinburgh Review was a projec

3 But see Charles L. Griswold, Jr., Adam S

7 "Preface," Edinburgh Review, i, iii.

9 See J.C. Bryce's introduction to Smith's contributions in Essays on Philosophical Sub-

Even the opening two paragraphs o

Smith briefly illustrates the contra

22 "Letter," 243, 244, 244.

which we have since received back from

In the following paragraph of his "Letter," devoted entirely to the En-

[I]t is with pleasure that I observe in

Smith is in effect doing what later in t

With this, Smith has established th

Observing Moral Philosoph

Having established this structure

The original and inventive genius o

Smith again points to the historical original

Given the similarity of their lists a

40 Ernest Mossner, The Life of David Hum

mentions, on this occasion, Mr Locke, my Lor

44 Hume, "Abstract," printed in Treatise, 407.

religious commitments as a teacher.4

Smith and System

In following a Humean program

50 Smith, Theory of Moral Sentiments, 248.

Nor do the French supply this lack, regardless of t

lated, may have been introduced to

Since Smith allows that the Scots,

However, to see Smith as offering nothing but Hume a lafrangaise would

understanding of the pleasures and pain

Not that, armed with the importance

In his "Letter" Smith exhorts his countrymen to take a more cosmopolitan

mated, and I believe too, a just pa

This passage can by no means be us

67 See John Rae, Life of Adam Smith (N

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