. But in reality there is probably more diffuse writing in the
_Theory_ than in the _Wealth of Nations_, which is for the most part
packed tightly enough. Another Scotch critic, Archibald Alison the
elder, the author of the _Essay on Taste_, even surpasses M'Culloch in
his keenness in detecting the effects of this dictating habit. He says
that Smith used to walk up and down the room while he dictated, and
that the consequence is that his sentences are nearly all the same
length, each containing as much as the amanuensis could write down
while the author took a single turn.[228] This is excessive acuteness.
Smith's sentences are not by any means all of one length, or all of
the same construction. It need only be added that the habit of
dictating would in his case arise naturally from his slow and laboured
penmanship.

As I have mentioned the house in which the _Wealth of Nations_ was
composed, it may be added that it stood in the main street of the
town, but its garden ran down to the beach, and that it was only
pulled down in 1844, without anybody in the place realising at the
moment, though it has been a cause of much regret since, that they
were suffering their most interesting association to be destroyed. An
engraving of it, however, exists.

FOOTNOTES:

[201] Adams's _Works_, ix. 589.

[202] Adams's _Works_, iii. 276.

[203] Secretary of the Royal Society. The letter was probably in
acknowledgment of the intimation of his election as Fellow.

[204] Mr. Adams is Adam the architect, and Mrs. Montagu is the
well-known Mrs. Elizabeth Montagu of Portman Square, whose hospitable
house was a rival to any of the most brilliant salons of Paris.

[205] _Hume MSS._, R.S.E. Library.

[206] Burton's _Life of Hume_, ii. 390.

[207] _Hume MSS._, R.S.E. Library.

[208] Carlyle's _Autobiography_, p. 489.

[209] Sinclair's _Life of Sir John Sinclair_, i. 37.

[210] Fraser's _Scotts of Buccleuch_, I. lxxxviii., II. 406.

[211] Brougham's _Men of Letters_, ii. 219.

[212] Brougham's Men of Letters, ii. 219.

[213] Burton's _Life of Hume_, ii. 429.

[214] _Ibid._, ii. 433.

[215] _Hume MSS._, R.S.E. Library. Partially published by Burton.

[216] Sir James Steuart's _Inquiry into the Principles of Political
Economy_ was published in 1767.

[217] Published by Professor Thorold Rogers in the _Academy_ of 28th
February 1885.

[218] _Caldwell Papers_, iii. 207.

[219] _Wealth of Nations_, Book I. chap. xi.

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