arcely ever known to start a new topic
himself, or to appear unprepared upon those topics that were
introduced by others. Indeed, his conversation was never more amusing
than when he gave a loose rein to his genius upon the very few
branches of knowledge of which he only possessed the outlines."[238]
One of his defects, according to both Stewart and Carlyle, was his
poor penetration into personal character; but he was very fond of
drawing the character of any person whose name came up in
conversation, and Stewart says his judgments of this kind, though
always decided and lively, were generally too systematic to be just,
leaning ever, however, to charity's side, and erring by partiality
rather than prejudice; while Carlyle completes the description by
stating that when any one challenged or disputed his opinion of a
character, he would retrace his steps with the greatest ease and
nonchalance and contradict every word he had been saying. Carlyle's
statement is confirmed by the remarks of certain of Smith's other
friends who speak incidentally of the amusing inconsistencies in which
he indulged in private conversation. He was fond of starting theories
and supporting them, but it is not so easy to explain a man on a
theory as to explain some abstract subject on a theory.

His voice seems to have been harsh, his utterance often stammering,
and his manner, especially among strangers, often embarrassed, but
many writers speak of the remarkable animation of his features as he
warmed to his subject, and of the peculiar radiancy of his smile. "His
smile of approbation," says Dr. Carlyle, "was captivating." "In the
society of those he loved," says Stewart, "his features were often
brightened with a smile of inexpressible benignity."

While living in London, Smith, along with Gibbon, attended Dr. William
Hunter's lectures on anatomy,[239] as we are told by a writer who was
one of Hunter's students at the time, and during that very period he
had an opportunity of vindicating the value of the lectures of private
teachers of medicine like Hunter against pretensions to monopoly set
up at the moment on behalf of the universities. In a long letter
written to Cullen in September 1774 Smith defends with great vigour
and vivacity the most absolute and unlimited freedom of medical
education, treating the University claims as mere expressions of the
craft spirit, and recognising none of those exceptional features of
medical education which