is singularly clear; and no great teacher of
chemistry has hitherto given the world a more striking example of
exactness in detail, and clearness in conception.

His cruel death, too, may be almost said to have continued his services
to society. It proved, with irresistible force, the true character of
Infidel Revolution. It showed a noble-minded and benevolent man the
victim of revolutionary rage; an intelligent, studious, and retired man,
obnoxious to the rabble love of ruin; a mild, generous, and patriotic
man, the instant prey of revolutionary government, which boasted of its
superiority to the vices of kings, of its homage to intellect, and of
its supreme value for the virtues of private life. Yet it murdered
Lavoisier without a moment's hesitation, or a moment's remorse, and
flung the first philosopher of France into a felon's grave.

The biography of Adam Smith gives Lord Brougham an opportunity of
pouring out, at the distance of nearly half a century, that knowledge of
Political Economy which first brought him into notice. His _Colonial
Policy_, a remarkable performance for a student of eighteen, exhibited
in miniature the principles and propensities which his long career has
been expended in maturing and moulding. Adam Smith was the idol of all
Scottish worship in the last century; and his originality of conception,
the weight of his subject, and the clearness of his judgment, made him
worthy of the elevation.

Adam Smith's birth was of a higher order than is often to be found in
the instance of men destined to literary eminence. He was the son of a
comptroller of the customs, who had been private secretary to Lord
Loudoun, secretary of state, and keeper of the great seal.

An accident in infancy had nearly deprived the age of its first
philosopher, even if it had not trained him to be hanged. At three years
of age he was stolen by travelling tinkers, a race resembling the
gipsies, and which in that day formed a numerous population in Scotland.
But a pursuit being speedily set on foot, he was fortunately recovered.
He was well educated, and, after the routine of school, was sent to
Glasgow for three years, where he obtained an Exhibition to Baliol
College. At Oxford he remained for seven years, chiefly addicted to
mathematics--a study, however, which he subsequently wholly abandoned.
He had been intended for the Church of England; but whether from dislike
of its discipline, or from disappointment in his view