- Title Pages
- Illustration
- Dedication
- Acknowledgements
- List of Plates
- References and Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 Kirkcaldy
- 2 Boyhood
- 3 Glasgow
- 4 The Never to Be Forgotten Hutcheson
- 5 Oxford
- 6 A Respectable Auditory
- 7 Lectures on the History of Philosophy and Law
- 8 Called to Glasgow University
- 9 Teacher
- 10 Publishing Scholar and Administrator
- 11 The Making of The Theory of Moral Sentiments
- 12 Criticism of The Theory of Moral Sentiments
- 13 Travelling Tutor
- 14 Inquirer into the Wealth of Nations
- 15 The American Crisis and The Wealth of Nations
- 16 Euge! Belle! Dear Mr Smith
- 17 Dialogue With a Dying Man
- 18 Settlement in Edinburgh
- 19 Economic Theorist as Commissioner of Customs
- 20 Literary Pursuits
- 21 Times of Hardship and Distress
- 22 Legacy for Legislators
- 23 The Precariousness of This Life
- 24 The Great Change
- Bibliography
- Index
Dialogue With a Dying Man
Dialogue With a Dying Man
- Chapter:
- (p.289) 17 Dialogue With a Dying Man
- Source:
- The Life of Adam Smith
- Author(s):
Ian Simpson Ross
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
Smith was devoted in his attentions to Hume as he lay dying, but, ever the man of prudence, gave his best friend some pain through unwillingness to see through the press the Dialogues concerning Natural Religion. In the event, Smith was violently abused by Christians for describing Hume in a published letter as approaching as near to the idea of a ‘perfectly wise and virtuous man’ as human weakness permits. Smith would have been in further trouble if his 1778 Machiavellian advice about a solution to the American problem had been published, for it advocated returning Canada to the French, and Florida to the Spaniards, to ensure that independent Americans would become allies of Britain.
Keywords: Christians, independent, prudence, virtuous, wise
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- Title Pages
- Illustration
- Dedication
- Acknowledgements
- List of Plates
- References and Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 Kirkcaldy
- 2 Boyhood
- 3 Glasgow
- 4 The Never to Be Forgotten Hutcheson
- 5 Oxford
- 6 A Respectable Auditory
- 7 Lectures on the History of Philosophy and Law
- 8 Called to Glasgow University
- 9 Teacher
- 10 Publishing Scholar and Administrator
- 11 The Making of The Theory of Moral Sentiments
- 12 Criticism of The Theory of Moral Sentiments
- 13 Travelling Tutor
- 14 Inquirer into the Wealth of Nations
- 15 The American Crisis and The Wealth of Nations
- 16 Euge! Belle! Dear Mr Smith
- 17 Dialogue With a Dying Man
- 18 Settlement in Edinburgh
- 19 Economic Theorist as Commissioner of Customs
- 20 Literary Pursuits
- 21 Times of Hardship and Distress
- 22 Legacy for Legislators
- 23 The Precariousness of This Life
- 24 The Great Change
- Bibliography
- Index