cture of malignity, so
frequently the disagreeable source of what is called wit in other men.
It never was the meaning of his raillery to mortify; and therefore, far
from offending, it seldom failed to please and delight, even those who
were the objects of it. To his friends who were frequently the objects
of it, there was not perhaps any one of all his great and amiable
qualities which contributed more to endear his conversation. And
that gayety of temper, so agreeable in society, but which is so often
accompanied with frivolous and superficial qualities, was in him
certainly attended with the most severe application, the most extensive
learning, the greatest depth of thought, and a capacity in every respect
the most comprehensive. Upon the whole, I have always considered him,
both in his lifetime and since his death, as approaching as nearly to
the idea of a perfectly wise and virtuous man as perhaps the nature of
human frailty will permit.

I ever am, dear sir,

Most affectionately yours,

ADAM SMITH.

HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAPTER I.

THE BRITONS.

The curiosity entertained by all civilized nations, of inquiring into
the exploits and adventures of their ancestors, commonly excites a
regret that the history of remote ages should always be so much involved
in obscurity, uncertainty, and contradiction. Ingenious men, possessed
of leisure, are apt to push their researches beyond the period in which
literary monuments are framed or preserved; without reflecting, that the
history of past events is immediately lost or disfigured when intrusted
to memory and oral tradition, and that the adventures of barbarous
nations, even if they were recorded, could afford little or no
entertainment to men born in a more cultivated age. The convulsions of
a civilized state usually compose the most instructive and most
interesting part of its history; but the sudden, violent, and unprepared
revolutions incident to barbarians, are so much guided by caprice, and
terminate so often in cruelty, that they disgust us by the uniformity of
their appearance; and it is rather fortunate for letters that they are
buried in silence and oblivion. The only certain means by which nations
can indulge their curiosity in researches concerning their remote
origin, is to consider the language, manners, and customs of their
ancestors, and to compare them with those of the neighboring nations.
The fables, which are commonly employed t