SMITH, Adam (subject); STEWART, Dugald.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Account of the Life and Writings of Adam Smith, LL.D. First separate edition, presentation copy, inscribed by the recipient, "Alex. Fraser Tytler, from the author" on the half-title. Tytler, Stewart, and Smith were all founder members of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1783. Stewart's account is the first biographical study of Smith, the first work to shape the philosopher's popular image, and a formative influence on the first generation of Smithian thinkers. Dugald Stewart (1753-1828) was an extremely early devotee of Smithian economics, drawing on the Wealth of Nations in his Edinburgh lectures from 1778 onwards. His Account helped form the popular image of Smith as an ally of common-sense philosophy and an opponent of Hume. It is the first such work listed by Vanderblue, who places the journal printing first and this offprint second. This offprint is part of a volume of works collected by Alexander Fraser Tytler, Lord Woodhouselee (1747-1813), a Judge Advocate of Scotland, at the turn of the 19th century. Tytler occupied many of the same elite Edinburgh circles as Stewart and Smith: in 1780, he joined Stewart on the faculty of Edinburgh University and the three men lived and worked alongside one another in the city until Smith's death in 1790. Tytler has provided a manuscript index at the beginning of the volume and his unobtrusive annotations occur throughout: on page 20 of the Account he takes issue with Stewart's depiction of Smith's analysis of human sympathy, and p

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