, for their
benefit, he drew from his pocket the several fees of the students,
wrapped up in separate paper parcels, and beginning to call up each
man by his name, he delivered to the first who was called the money
into his hand. The young man peremptorily refused to accept it,
declaring that the instruction and pleasure he had already received
was much more than he either had repaid or ever could compensate, and
a general cry was heard from every one in the room to the same effect.
But Mr. Smith was not to be bent from his purpose. After warmly
expressing his feelings of gratitude and the strong sense he had of
the regard shown to him by his young friends, he told them this was a
matter betwixt him and his own mind, and that he could not rest
satisfied unless he performed what he deemed right and proper. 'You
must not refuse me this satisfaction; nay, by heavens, gentlemen, you
shall not;' and seizing by the coat the young man who stood next him,
he thrust the money into his pocket and then pushed him from him. The
rest saw it was in vain to contest the matter, and were obliged to let
him have his own way."[138]

This is a signal proof of the scrupulous delicacy of Smith's honour;
he had firmly determined not to touch a shilling of this money, and if
the students had persisted in refusing it he intended, as we have
seen, to give it to the funds of the University. Many may think his
delicacy even excessive, for it is common enough for a professor's
class to be conducted by a substitute in the absence, through
ill-health or other causes, of the professor himself, and nobody
thinks the students suffer any such injury by the arrangement as to
call for even a reduction of the fees. What Smith would have done had
his absence been due to ill-health one cannot say, but as his
engagement with the students for a session's lectures was broken off
by his own spontaneous acceptance of an office of profit, he felt he
could not honourably retain the wages when he had failed to implement
the engagement,--a thing which a barrister in large practice does
without scruple every day.

The same sense of right led Smith to resign his chair. He did not do
so till he reached France, but he manifestly contemplated doing it
from the first, for he only made arrangements for paying his
substitute till the end of the first half of the session, by which
time he would expect his successor to have entered on office, as
indeed actually happened, for