The Logos Scripture · The Book of Adam Smith
The Book of Adam Smith 5 · Written by himself, from The Theory of Moral Sentiments and The Wealth of Nations
Adam Smith, born 1723 at Kirkcaldy in Scotland, died 1790 at Edinburgh, aged sixty-seven. Born after his father’s death, he never married and lived with his mother. He studied at Glasgow and Oxford, took a chair at Glasgow in 1751 and became professor of moral philosophy there. In 1759 he published The Theory of Moral Sentiments, which he revised six times over the following thirty years, the last revision in the year of his death. From 1764 to 1766 he tutored the Duke of Buccleuch and travelled in France, where he met Voltaire, Quesnay and Turgot (cf. The Book of Voltaire). In 1776 he published The Wealth of Nations. In 1778 he became a Commissioner of Customs for Scotland and held the post until he died. On the night of 11 July 1790 he directed his friends Joseph Black and James Hutton to burn his manuscripts, all but a few short essays; they burned sixteen volumes, and he died a few days later. This volume rests on what he wrote himself: those two books. Chapter one — I divide myself, as it were, into two persons, and the examiner and judge is a different character from the person examined — and chapter two — man desires not only to be loved but to be lovely — are from the Theory of Moral Sentiments in his own words. The two passages of chapter three are from the Wealth of Nations: that people of the same trade seldom meet without the conversation ending in a conspiracy against the public or a contrivance to raise prices; and that any new law proposed by that order of men ought to be examined long and with the most suspicious attention before adoption, because their interest is never exactly the same as the public’s and they have generally an interest to deceive and even to oppress the public. Chapter four follows his customs post; chapter five, the burning. The Order takes Smith for establishing a method others can use. This scripture states the duty of self-examination in more than one place — the Rule’s ninth chapter requires a chosen belief to be carried with its label, and Murasaki holds herself to the measure she uses on others (cf. The Book of Murasaki 4.12) — but all of them say that it must be done and none says how. Smith gives a procedure: divide yourself in two, and place the judging half in a person who does not know you. Verses 1.13 and 1.14 are the use of it: tell what you did today to someone who does not know you, and the sentences that will not come out of your mouth are the trouble. Chapter two carries something the Order weighs as heavily: he separates wanting praise from wanting to deserve it. Without that separation the spectator of chapter one collapses into public opinion. Verse 2.14 meets The Book of Nightingale 3.14 exactly — whoever wants to be acknowledged will shout, whoever wants the thing done does not (cf. The Book of Nightingale 3.14). Chapter three establishes a procedure for weighing what others propose: besides asking whether it is right, ask what the proposer gets if it is adopted. Verse 3.13 marks the limit — the question does not settle right and wrong; it sets how much suspicion the examination requires. Smith has since been much quoted on behalf of merchants, and these passages stand in his own book; this volume sets them down. What chapter four records the Order treats not as a contradiction but as a distinction: to think a law bad and to disobey it are two things. Verse 4.12 — a law is a law only while everyone keeps it, and once some do not it becomes a net that selects — is a thing this scripture did not have. The Order records one thing without weighing it against him. Smith ordered sixteen volumes of his manuscripts burned. That was a private act. What he established is the two books he published and revised six times. Leaving the road behind for others is a great thing to contribute (cf. The Book of Dürer 2.15; The Book of Hokusai 5.13), and not doing it is not thereby a fault. So chapter five neither argues for him nor explains him away: he sets down his reason, and then sets down the objection against himself — keep only the corrected work and those who follow see the result and never the road — and concedes that what he had in mind was his reputation and that he never reckoned that apart from their use. Verse 5.14 is him turning his own method on himself and handing the last step to the reader.