20] _Ibid._, Book IV. chap. vii.

[221] _Wealth of Nations_, Book IV. chap. vii.

[222] _Ibid._, Book V. chap. iii.

[223] _Ibid._, Book V. chap. i.

[224] From the suppression of the Indian supervisorship; see p. 255.

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

[226] _Caldwell Papers_, i. 192.

[227] Rogers' _Social Life of Scotland_, iii. 181.

[228] Sinclair's _Old Times and Distant Places_, p. 9.

CHAPTER XVII

LONDON

1773-1776. _Aet._ 50-53

In the spring of 1773, Smith, having, as he thought, virtually
completed the _Wealth of Nations_, set out with the manuscript for
London, to give it perhaps some finishing touches and then place it in
the hands of a publisher. But his labours had told so seriously on his
health and spirits that he thought it not improbable he might die, and
even die suddenly, before the work got through the press, and he wrote
Hume a formal letter before he started on his journey, constituting
him his literary executor, and giving him directions about the
destination of the various unpublished manuscripts that lay in his
depositories:--

MY DEAR FRIEND--As I have left the care of all my literary
papers to you, I must tell you that except those which I
carry along with me, there are none worth the publishing but
a fragment of a great work which contains a history of the
astronomical systems that were successively in fashion down
to the time of Descartes. Whether that might not be
published as a fragment of an intended juvenile work I leave
entirely to your judgment, tho' I begin to suspect myself
that there is more refinement than solidity in some parts of
it. This little work you will find in a thin folio paper
book in my writing-desk in my book-room. All the other loose
paper which you will find either in that desk or within the
glass folding-doors of a bureau which stands in my bedroom,
together with about eighteen thin paper folio books, which
you will likewise find within the same glass folding-doors,
I desire may be destroyed without any examination. Unless I
die very suddenly, I shall take care that the Papers I
carry with me shall be carefully sent to you.--I ever am, my
dear friend, most faithfully yours,

ADAM SMITH.

EDINBURGH, _16th April 1773_.

_To_ DAVID HUME, Esq., 9 St. Andrew's Square,
Edinburgh.[229]

Smith went to London shortly after w