[Born at Kirkaldy, in Scotland, 1723. Died, in Edinburgh, 1790. Aged 67.]

This great master in the science of political economy was the son of an Officer of Customs, and studied first in Glasgow, afterwards at Oxford. He had feeble health, and was of studious habits. In 1748, a lecturer, in Edinburgh, upon Rhetoric and the Belles-Lettres; and in 1751, appointed Professor, first of Logic, and then of Moral Philosophy, in the University of Glasgow. At this period of his life he published his “Theory of the Moral Sentiments,” a work in which he regards Sympathy as the foundation of all morals. In 1763, resigning his Professorship, he became tutor to the young Duke of Buccleuch, with whom he travelled on the continent for several years. He subsequently retired to his native village, where he passed ten years of his life in close obscurity, study, and fruitful meditation. In 1776, he issued from his cell to pour light for ever into the busy world. In that year was published his memorable “Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.” This monument of industry, observation, sagacity, learning, and acuteness, continues the one great hand-book of political economists. The leading points which Adam Smith laboured to urge in his “Inquiry” are—That labour is the only source of the wealth of nations; that wealth does not consist in the abundance of gold and silver, but in the abundance of the necessities, conveniences, and enjoyments of life; that it is sound policy to leave individuals to pursue their own interest in their own way, and that every regulation intended to force industry into particular channels, is impolitic and pernicious. The justice of these axioms has, after years of argument, denial, and resistance, received general acknowledgment in England; and Adam Smith is the author of one revolution in the world’s progress, and a benefactor of his kind. His reasoning is not always sound; but the base of his fabric is unassailable, and the illustration which constitutes its ornament, is amongst the happiest ever employed to give life and light to a solid structure. Adam Smith is the great practical philosopher of an age and a people, craving for his philosophy more than for any other, yet wanting, most of all, the philosophy which shows the soul of a man as the most precious of all his estates, and teaches him the husbandry of it. He died, having won a competence, and fulfilling a government appointment.

[This plaster cast was formerly in the collection of Sir Thomas Lawrence.]

427. John Hunter. Surgeon and Comparative Anatomist.

[Born in Scotland, 1728. Died in London, 1793. Aged 65.]

When John Hunter was twenty years old, he could scarcely read or write; but he could make chairs and tables. At the time of his death, forty-five years afterwards, he was the first anatomist in the country; and he left behind him a museum—the work of his own rare intelligence and industry—which the government purchased for the sum of £15,000, and conferred upon the Royal College of Surgeons. Hunter came to London, from his carpenter’s shop in Scotland, in order to serve as anatomical assistant to his brother William, who had already established a reputation as an anatomist, and was doing well. In a few months John had made sufficient advance to be able to give instruction in the dissecting-room. He then studied on his own account, went to Oxford, and became a surgeon. Intense application, profound observation, ceaseless experiments, and masterly skill and judgment, enabled him in time considerably to enlarge the knowledge of surgery, and to make valuable discoveries in connexion with his favourite science of comparative anatomy. He was, for England, the first great leader in the Science of animal life. He was a bold and clever operator; he wrote several professional treatises; and, besides being Surgeon Extraordinary to the King, he held the offices of Inspector-General of Hospitals, and Surgeon-General. His name is honoured in the profession to which he belongs, and he is justly regarded as the great and worthy guide and pioneer of all the seekers and successful discoverers, who since his time have explored the same paths.

[By Flaxman.]

428. James Watt. Improver of the Steam-Engine.

[Born at Greenock, 1736. Died 1819. Aged 83.]

It has been said that the genius of Watt, as displayed in his mechanical inventions, has contributed more to show the practical utility of the sciences, to extend the power of man over the material world, to multiply and expand the conveniences of life, than the works of any other individual in modern times. His was a rare mechanical genius. It had been nurtured from his infancy at home; where he lived, as a boy, in solitary retirement, cultivating observation and reflexion, and kept apart from other boys by weak bodily health. It may be affirmed that his whole life was one long day’s labour, for his enlightened industry never ceased. When a mere child, he would take to pieces and reconstruct every toy that came in his way. At nineteen he went to London, and placed himself with a maker of mathematical instruments there, making delicate instruments for his employer with his own hands. “With those same hands,” says M. Arago, a little fancifully, since the head now took the place of the hands, “he afterwards constructed those colossal machines which in Cornwall, and on the ocean, perform the service of millions of horses.” But the improvement of the steam-engine, until it attained its highest point of perfection, is not Watt’s sole claim to the title of a discoverer. Without knowing a note of music, he constructed an organ, and in a great measure solved the problem of temperament. He invented the press for copying letters; he introduced the process of bleaching by the aid of chlorine; he explained the composition of water, and the art of warming by steam. The extent, variety, and accuracy of Watt’s knowledge were amazing. No subject seemed foreign to him, and upon every subject he spoke as if that alone had all his life engaged his attention. Sir Humphrey Davy declared that Watt stood upon a higher elevation than Archimedes. Great as were his powers, he was a man of child-like candour, and of the greatest simplicity.