me, his mind had
already, under Hutcheson's stimulating instructions, begun to work
effectively on the ideas lodged in it and to follow out their
suggestions in his own thought. Hutcheson seems to have recognised his
quality, and brought him, young though he was, under the personal
notice of David Hume. There is a letter written by Hume to Hutcheson
on the 4th of March 1740 which is not indeed without its difficulties,
but if, as Mr. Burton thinks, the Mr. Smith mentioned in it be the
economist, it would appear as if Smith had, while attending
Hutcheson's class,--whether as a class exercise or otherwise,--written
an abstract of Hume's _Treatise of Human Nature_, then recently
published, that Smith's abstract was to be sent to some periodical for
publication, and that Hume was so pleased with it that he presented
its young author with a copy of his own work. "My bookseller," Hume
writes, "has sent to Mr. Smith a copy of my book, which I hope he has
received as well as your letter. I have not yet heard what he has done
with the abstract. Perhaps you have. I have got it printed in London,
but not in the _Works of the Learned_, there having been an article
with regard to my book somewhat abusive before I sent up the
abstract." If the Mr. Smith of this letter is Adam Smith, then he must
have been away from Glasgow at that time, for Hutcheson was
communicating with him by letter, but that may possibly be explained
by the circumstance that he had been appointed to one of the Snell
exhibitions at Balliol College, Oxford, and might have gone home to
Kirkcaldy to make preparations for residence at the English
University, though he did not actually set out for it till June.

These Snell exhibitions, which were practically in the gift of the
Glasgow professors, were naturally the prize of the best student of
Glasgow College at the time they fell vacant, and they have been held
in the course of the two centuries of their existence by many
distinguished men, including Sir William Hamilton and Lockhart,
Archbishop Tait and Lord President Inglis. They were originally
founded by an old Glasgow student, a strong Episcopalian, for the
purpose of educating Scotchmen for the service of the Episcopal Church
in Scotland. By the terms of his will the holders were even to be
bound under penalty of L500 "to enter holy orders and return to serve
the Church in Scotland," and it has sometimes been concluded from that
circumstance that Smith must h