ith Smith's entreaties in the hope of his
recovering his health or perhaps changing his mind; but at length, a
week before his death, he expressly sent for them, and asked them then
and there to burn sixteen volumes of manuscript to which he directed
them. This they did without knowing or asking what they contained. It
will be remembered that seventeen years before, when he went up to
London with the manuscript of the _Wealth of Nations_, he made Hume
his literary executor, and left instructions with him to destroy all
his loose papers and eighteen thin paper folio books "without any
examination," and to spare nothing but his fragment on the history of
astronomy. When the sixteen volumes of manuscript were burnt Smith's
mind seemed to be greatly relieved. It appears to have been on a
Sunday, and when his friends came, as they were accustomed to do, on
the Sunday evening to supper--and they seem to have mustered strongly
on this particular evening--he was able to receive them with something
of his usual cheerfulness. He would even have stayed up and sat with
them had they allowed him, but they pressed him not to do so, and he
retired to bed about half-past nine. As he left the room he turned and
said, "I love your company, gentlemen, but I believe I must leave you
to go to another world." These are the words as reported by Henry
Mackenzie, who was present, in giving Samuel Rogers an account of
Smith's death during a visit he paid to London in the course of the
following year.[371] But Hutton, in the account he gave Stewart of the
incident, employs the slightly different form of expression, "I
believe we must adjourn this meeting to some other place." Possibly
both sentences were used by Smith, for both are needed for the
complete expression of the parting consolation he obviously meant to
convey--that death is not a final separation, but only an adjournment
of the meeting.

That was his last meeting with them in the earthly meeting-place. He
had gone to the other world before the next Sunday came round, having
died on Saturday the 17th of July 1790. He was buried in the Canongate
churchyard, near by the simple stone which Burns placed on the grave
of Fergusson, and not far from the statelier tomb which later on
received the remains of his friend Dugald Stewart. The grave is marked
by an unpretending monument, stating that Adam Smith, the author of
the _Wealth of Nations_, lies buried there.

His death made less stir or