NEW BOOKS, The Theory of Moral Sentiments; or; an Essay towards an Analysis of the Principles by which men naturally judge concerning the conduct and character, firft of their neighbours, and after wards of themfelves. To which is added, A Differtation on the Origin of Languages. By Adam Smith, LL. D. Fellow of the Royal Secieties of London and Edinburgh; and formerly Profeffor of Moral Philofophy in the Univerfity of Glasgow. Edit. 6. with confider able additions and corrections. 8vo. 2 vols 12s. beards. Cadell.

The following particulars of the life of this distinguished author are prefixed to the account given of the work in the Monthly Review.

"Adam Smith, a native of Scotland, was born in the year 1723, and was edu. cated in the college of Glasgow. Here he remained till the year 1745, when he went to Baliol college, Oxford. The habit of close thinking, which he had acquired during a long courfe of ftudy, rendered him inattentive to external appearance and address, and frequently led him into that kind of absence, which might be mistaken for ftupidity. On the firft day of his dining in Baliol college, the fervitor feeing him, in a reverie of this kind, neglecting his dinner, defired him to" fall to, for he had never feen fuch a piece of beef in Scotland:" an incident which the Doctor often afterward mentioned with a fmile, when that piece of beef smoked on his table. His love of retirement prevented him from forming advantageous connections at the Univerfity; and he left it without any fettled plan of life. To bufinefs, he had no inclination certain opinions which he had early adopted, refpecting religion, rendered it improper for him to enter into the church; and, notwithstanding his moral and literary merit, he at that time wanted many requifites for the office which his friends wifhed him to undertake, that of a travelling tutor. Finding it neceffary to engage in fome profitable employment of his talents, in the year 1750 he opened a class for teaching Rhetoric in Edinburgh, whence he was, in a fhort time, called to the university of Glasgow, as profeffor, firft of logic, and afterward of moral philofophy.

The learning and tafte which Dr Smith had acquired, and, ftill more, the uncommon ftrength of conception, and folidity of judgement, with which nature had endowed him, rendered it no diffi

cult tafk for him to fill up the chair even of the celebrated Dr Hutchefon with a high degree of reputation. His moral lectures were divided into two parts. In the firft, he read that ingenious Theory of Moral Sentiments, the fubftance of which was long ago given to the world, and which now appears before the public corrected and enlarged. In the fecond part, he particularly adapted his lectures to the benefit of the great commercial town in which they were read; and con. verted the chair of moral philosophy into a profefforihip of trade and finance. His intimacy with many of the principal merchants of Glafgow furnished him with much commercial knowledge; which his fcientific mind could easily apply to the theory of commerce, which it was the principal defign of thefe lectures to establish.

The originality of thought and method which this profeffor discovered in all his lectures, and the uncommon degree of perfpicuity and precision with which they were expreffed, obtained him a diftin guished name in the university. Among his admirers was the Right Hon. Charles Townshend, who had married the Du chefs of Buccleugh. The high eftimation in which he held Dr Smith's abilities, induced him to engage the profeffor, by a very liberal offer, to refign his chair, and accompany the young Duke in his travels. The Do&or accepted the propofal; but, before he left Glasgow, he requefted all his pupils to attend him, and as each name was called over, returned the several sums that he had received as fees; faying, that, as he had not completely fulfilled his engagement, he was refolved his clafs fhould be inftructed for that year gratis, and that the remainder of his lectures fhould be read by one of the senior ftudents. He travelled with the Duke for about two years; and, at his return, publifhed the fubitance of his lectures in his justly celebrated Inquiry into the Causes of the Wealth of Nations.

Through the intereft of the Duke of Buccleugh and Lord Loughborough, Dr Smith was appointed one of the Commiffioners of Cuftoms in Scotland; a post which he continued to occupy with great reputation, to the close of his life. On this appointment, he offered to refign the annuity of 3001, per annum, which had been granted him for fuperintending the Duke's education and travels: but the offer was handfomely refused.

The

The laft years of Dr Smith's life were spent at Edinburgh, among a circle of learned friends, by whom he was highly efteemed. He died on the 17th of July 1790*."

The additions to this publication were evidently written in the full vigour of the author's judgement and imagination. We infert the following extract on the Origin of Verbs.

"Verbs muft neceffarily have been ccëval with the very firft attempts towards the formation of language. No affirmation can be expreffed without the affiftance of fome verb. We never speak but in order to express our opinion that fomething either is or is not. But the word denoting this event, or this matter of fact, which is the subject of our affirmation, must always be a verb.

Imperfonal verbs, which exprefs in one word a complete event, which preferve in the expreffion that perfect fimplicity and unity, which there always is in the object and in the idea, and which, fuppofe no abstraction, or metaphyfical divifion of the event into its feveral conftituent members of fubject and attribute, would, in all probability, be the fpecies of verbs firft invented. The verbs pluit, it rains; nigit, it (nows; tonat, it thunders; lucet, it is day; turbatur, there is a confufion, &c. each of them express a complete affirmation, the whole of an event, with that perfect fimplicity and unity with which the mind conceives it in nature. On the contrary, the phrases, Alexander ambulat, Alexander walks; Petrus fedet, Peter fits, divide the event, as it were, in two parts, the person or fubject, and the attribute, or matter of fact, affirmed of that fubject. But in nature, the idea of conception of Alexander walking, is as perfectly and completely one fimple *We are informed, on good authority, that for fome days before he expired, he employed himself in burning his manufcripts; and that no unprinted papers, of his writing, efcaped the flanies, excepting two fmall tracts; one on Mufic, the other, the History of Aftronomy, which will probably come before the public. His principal reafon for thus condemning his unpublished writings to oblivion, is faid to have been drawn from the confideration of their not having received his laft touches, and complete finishing; and from his dread of their ever being prematurely communicated to the public: which has too often been the cafe with refpect to the literary remains of men who have been eminent fer learning or genius,

conception, as that of Alexander not walking. The divifion of this event, therefore, into two parts, is altogether artificial, and is the effect of the imperfection of language, which, upon this, as upon many other occafions, fupplies, by a number of words, the want of one, which could exprefs at once the whole matter of fact that was meant to be affirmed. Every body must observe how much more fimplicity there is in the na tural expreffion, pluit, than in the more artificial expreffions, imber decidit, the rain falls; or tempeftas eft pluvia, the weather is rainy. In thefe two laft expreffions, the fimple event, or matter of fact, is artificially split and divided in the one, into two; in the other, into three parts. In each of them it is expressed by a fort of grammatical circumlocution, of which the fignificancy is founded upon a certain metaphyfical analysis of the component parts of the idea expreffed by the word pluit. The first verbs, therefore, perhaps even the first words, made ufe of in the beginnings of language, would in all probability be fuch imperfonal verbs. It is obferved accordingly, I am told, by the Hebrew grammarians, that the radical words of their languge, from which all the others are derived, are all of them verbs, and imperfonal verbs.

It is easy to conceive how, in the progrefs of language, thofe imperfonal verbs fhould become perfonal. Let us fuppofe, for example, that the word venit, it comes. was originally an imperfonal verb, and that it denoted, not the coming of fomething in general, as at prefent, but the coming of a particular object, fuch as the Lion. The firft favage inventors of language, we fhall fuppofe, when they obferved the approach of this terrible animal, were accustomed to cry to one another, venit, that is, the Lion comes; and that this word thus expreffed a complete event, without the assistance of any other. Afterwards, when, on the further progrefs of language, they had begun to give names to particular fubftances, whenever they obferved the approach of any other terrible object, they would naturally join the name of that object to the word venit, and cry out, venit urfus, venit lupus. By degrees the word venit would thus come ject, and not merely the coming of the to fignify the coming of any terrible oblion. It would now, therefore, express, not the coming of a particular object, but the coming of an object of a particular

kind.

kind. Having become more general in its fignification, it could no longer represent any particular distinct event by itself, and without the affiftance of a noun fubftantive, which might serve to ascertain and determine its fignification. It would now, therefore, have become a perfonal, inftead of an imperfonal verb. We may eafily conceive how, in the further progrefs of society, it might still grow more general in its fignification, and come to fignify, as at prefent, the approach of any thing whatever, whether good, bad, or indifferent.

It is probably in fome fuch manner as this, that almost all verbs have become perfonal, and that mankind have learned by degrees to split and divide almost every event into a great number of metaphyfical parts, expreffed by the different parts of speech, variously combined in the different members of every phrase and sentence *."

As the far greater part of verbs exprefs, at prefent, not an event, but the attribute of an event, and confequently require a fubject, et nominative cafe, to complete their fignification, fome grammarians not having attended to this progress of nature, and being defirous to make their common rules quite univerfal, and without any exception, have infiit ed that all verbs required a nominative, either expreffed or understood; and have, accordingly, put themselves to the torture to find fome aukward nominatives to thofe few verbs, which still expreffing a complete event, plainly admit of none. Pluit, for example, according to Sanctius, means pluvia pluit, in English, the rain rains. See Sanctii Minerva, l. 3. c. I.

Vegages made in the years 1788 and 1789, from China to the North-Weft Coaft of America. To which are prefixed, an introductory narra tive of a voyage performed in 1786 from Bengal in the bip Nootka: Obfervations on the probable exiflence of a North-Weft Paffage; and fome account of the Trade between the North-Weft Coast of America and China, and the latter country and Great Britain. By Jeba Meares, Efq; 4to. 17. 16s. J. Walter, Piccadilly.

Voyages and travels form a very confi.

derable and interefting branch of hi⚫ ftory; and when they are carefully compiled from authentic documents, and contain a variety of duly established facts, which regard thofe great concerns of all powerful kingdoms, navigation and commerce, their publication deferves encouragement. We therefore fincerely reVOL. LIII. February 1791.

joice at the uncommon fuccefs which has crowned the literary labours of Mr Meares. The very refpectable list of subfcribers does him the highest honour; and if we had had no other reason than this to have wished for a more methodical arrangement of his fubjects, and a more accurate attention to ftyle, we fhould have thought ourselves justified in expreffing some surprise, that he did not engage fome man of letters to look over the manufcript. Self-contradiction is the ufual confequence of tautology; and unfortunately Mr Meares, by complying too haftily with the wishes of his friends, and the political circumstances of the moment, has thrown himself into this predicament, and has laid himself open to the cenfures of critics.

Independent, however, of these defects, there is fuch a body of useful information happily difperfed throughout an ample volume, as cannot fail to give fatisfaction to government, to the mercantile part of the community, and to those rational individuals who fit down to read, not for amusement alone, but to add to their stock of general knowledge. For fuch readers, Mr Meares's voyages furnish many valuable acquifitions; fo many indeed, that it will be impoffible to give a clear statement of them within the compafs of a moderate abridgement; for which reafon we muft confine our extracts chiefly to the very interefting account of a country, which fo lately, for a very confiderable space of time, engroffed the attention of perfons of all ranks, and was the conftant fubject of conversation in all companies, and in every part of Great Britain.

Nootka Sound has made itself known in Europe, and must find a place in the records of the civil hiftory of Spain, England, and France, from its having been the cause of a disagreement between two of these powers, and of calling forth the political fenfe of the third, at the crifis of a revolution in its government, which required the greateft delicacy of conduct with respect to foreign powers. The Bri

tith miniftry will no longer be at a lofs

with refpect to the views of the National Affembly of France, but will be prepared to encounter that fupport which the new conftitution means to give to the family. compact of the Houfe of Bourbon. And as the territory on the north-west coast of America, to which Spain, though the has waved the difcuffion of the subject for L

the